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BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Q9_ 
OK 



SCHUYLER COUNTY 



NKW YORK 



ILLUSTRATED 



T'/te people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors vjill never achieve 
anything -worthy to be remembered 1.1:1 Ih pride by remote generations. — Macaulav. 



NEW YORK AND CHICAGO: 

The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company 

190:i. 



FTzT 




Biography is the only true History. — Emerson. 

A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors 

will nevei achieve anything worthy to be remembered with 

pride by remote generations. — Macaulay. 




-* i w 



W'/ 



PREFACE. 




HE greatest of English historians, Macaulay, and one of the most 
brilliant writers of tiic present century, has said : "The history of a 
country is best told in a record of the lives of its people." In con- 
formity with this idea, the BioCtKAphical Record has been prepared. 
Instead of going to musty records, and taking therefrom dry statistical 
matter that can be appreciated by but few, our corps of writers have 
gone to the people, the men and women who have, by their enterprise 
and industry, brought this county to a rank second to none among 
those comprising this great and noble State, and from their lips have the story of their life 
struggles. No more interesting or instructive matter could be presented to an intelligent 
public. In this volume will be found a record of many whose lives are worthy the imitation 
of coming generations. It tells how some, commencing life in poverty, by industry and 
economy, have accumulated wealth. It tells how others, with limited advantages for securing 
an education, have become learned men and women, with an influence extending throughout 
the length and breadth of the land. It tells of men who have risen from the lower walks of 
life to eminence as statesmen, and whose names have become famous. It tells of those in 
every walk in life who have striven to succeed, and records how that success has usu- 
ally crowned their efforts. It tells also of those, who, not seeking the applause of the 
world, have pursued the " even tenor of their way," content to have it said of them, as Christ 
said of the woman performing a deed of mercy — "They nave done what they could." It 
tells how many, in the pride and strength of young manhood, left the plow and the anvil, the 
lawyer's office and the counting-room, left every trade and profession, and at their country's 
call went forth valiantly " to do or die," and how through their efforts the Union was 
restored and peace once more reigned in the land. In the life of every man and of every 
woman is a lesson that should not be lost upon those who follow after. 

Coming generations will appreciate this volume and preserve it as a sacred treasure, from 
the fact that it contains so much that would never find its way into public records, and which 
would otherwise be inaccessible. Great care has been taken in the compilation of the'work 
and every opportunity possible given to those represented to insure correctness in what has 
been written ; and the publishers flatter themselves that they give to their readers a work with 
few errors of consequence. In addition to biographical sketches, portraits of a number of 
representative citizens are given. 

The faces of some, and biographical sketches of many, will be missed in this volume. 
For this the publishers are not to blame. Not having a proper conception of the work, some 
refused to give the information necessary to compile a sketch, while others were indifferent. 
Occasionally some member of the family would oppose the enterprise, and on account of such 
opposition the support of the interested one would be withheld. In a few instances men 
never could be found, though repeated calls were made at their residence or place of business. 



April, 1903. 



The S. T- Ci.AiiKE Publishlng Co. 




CONTENTS 



GENERAL INDEX. 




Table of Contents, 
Introductory, - 



3 
11 



Compendium of National Biography, - 13 
Compendium of Local Biography, - 223 



INDEX TO PART I. 



Compendium of National Biography. 



Biographical Sketches of National Celebrities. 



page 

Abbott, Lyman 144 

Adams, Charles Kendall 143 

Adams, John 25 

Adams, John Quincy 61 

Agassiz, Louis J. R 137 

Alg-er, Russell A 173 

Allison, William B 131 

Allston, Washington 190 

Altgeld, John Peter 140 

Andrews, Elisha B 184 

Anthony, Susan B 62 

Armour, Philip D 62 

Arnold, Benedict 84 

Arthur, Chester Allen 168 

Astor, John Jacob 139 

Audubon, John James 166 

Bailey, Tames Montgomery... 177 

Bancroft, George 74 

Barnard, Frederick A. P 179 

Barnum, Phineas T 41 

Barrett, Lawrence 156 

Barton, Clara 209 

Bayard, Thomas Francis 200 

Beard, William H 196 

Beauregard, Pierre G. T 203 

Beecher. Henry Ward 26 

Bell, Alexander Graham 96 

Bennett, James Gordon 206 

Benton, Thomas Hart 53 

Bergh, Henry 160 

Bierstadt, Albert 197 

Billings, Josh 166 

Blaine, James Gillespie 22 

Bland, Richard Parks 106 



page 

Boone, Daniel 36 

Booth, Edwin 51 

Booth, Junius Brutus 177 

Brice, Calvin S 181 

Brooks, Phillips 130 

Brown, John 51 

Brown, Charles Farrar 91 

Brush, Charles Francis 153 

Bryan, William Jennings 158 

Bryant, William Cullen . 44 

Buchanan, Franklin lO-i 

Buchanan, James 128 

Buckner, Simon Boliver 188 

Burdette, Robert J 103 

Burr, Aaron Ill 

Butler, Benjamin Franklin 24 

Calhoun, John Caldwell 23 

Cameron, James Uonald 141 

Cameron, Simon 141 

Cammack, Addison 197 

Campbell, Alexander 180 

Carlisle, John G 133 

Carnegie, Andrew 73 

Carpenter, Matthew Hale 178 

Carson, Christopher (Kit) 86 

Cass, Lewis 110 

Chase, Salmon Portland 65 

Childs. George W 83 

Choate, Rufus 207 

Chaflin, Horace Brigham 107 

Clay, Henry 21 

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne. . 86 

Cleveland, Grover 174 

Clews, Henry 153 



PAGE. 

Clinton, DeWitt 110 

Colfax, Schuyler 139 

Conklin, Alfred 32 

Conklin, Roscoe 32 

Cooley, Thomas Mclntyre. .. . 140 

Cooper, James Fenimore 58 

Cooper, Peter 37 

Copely, John Singleton 191 

Corbin, Austin 205 

Corcoran, W. W 196 

Cornell, Ezra 161 

Cramp, William 189 

Crockett, David . , 76 

Cullom, Shelby Moore 116 

Curtis, George William 144 

Cushman, Charlotte 107 

Custer, George A 95 

Dana, Charles A 88 

"Danbury News Man" 177 

Davenport, Fanny 106 

Da vis, Jefferson 24 

Debs, Eugene V 1:« 

Decatur, Stephen 101 

Deering, William 198 

Depew, Chauncey Mitchell... 209 

Dickinson, Anna 103 

Dickinson, Don M 139 

Dingley, Nelson, Jr 215 

Donnelly, Ignatius 161 

Douglas, Stephen .Arnold 53 

Douglass, Frederick 43 

Dow, Neal 108 

Draper, John William 184 



TABLE OF CONTENTS— PART I 



PAGE 

Drexel, Anthony Joseph 124 

Dupont, Henry 198 

Edison, Thomas Alva 55 

Edmunds, George F 201 

Ellsworth, Oliver 168 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo 57 

Ericsson, John 127 

Evarts, William Maxwell 89 

Farragut, David Glascoe 80 

Field, Cyrus West. . .• 173 

Field, Uavid Dudley 126 

Field, Marshall 59 

Field, Stephen Johnson 216 

Fillmore, Alillard 113 

Foote, Andrew Hull 176 

Foraker, Joseph B 143 

Forrest, Edwin 92 

Franklin, Benjamin 18 

Fremont, John Charles 29 

Fuller, Melville Weston 168 

Fulton, Robert 62 

Gage, Lyman J 71 

Gallatin, Albert 112 

Garfield, James A 163 

Garrett, John Work 20O 

Garrison, William Lloyd 50 

Gates, Horatio 70 

Gatling, Richard Jordan 116 

(George, Henry 203 

Gibbons, Cardinal James 209 

Gilmore, Patrick Sarsfield 77 

Girard, Stephen 137 

Gough, John B 131 

Gould, Jay 62 

Gordon, John B 215 

Grant, Ulysses S 155 

Gray, Asa 88 

Gray, Elisha 149 

Greeley, Adolphus W 142 

Greeley, Horace 20 

Greene, Nathaniel 69 

Gresham, Walter Quintin 183 

Hale, Edward Everett 79 

Hall, Charles Francis 167 

Hamilton, Alexander 31 

Hamlin, Hannibal 214 

Hampton, Wade 192 

Hancock, Winticld Scott 146 

Hanna, Marcus Alonzo 169 

Harris, Isham G 214 

Harrison, William Henry 87 

Harrison, Benjamin 182 

Harvard, John 129 

Havemeyer, John Craig 182 

Hawrhorne, Nathaniel 135 

Hayes, Rutherford Birchard., . 157 

Hendricks, Thomas Andrew.. 212 

Henry, Joseph 105 

Henry, Patrick 83 

Hill,Uavid Bennett 90 

Hobart, Clarrett A 213 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell 206 

Hooker, Joseph 52 

Howe, Elias 130 

Howells, William Dean 104 



PAGE 

Houston, Sam 120 

Hughes, Archbishop John 157 

Hughitt, Marvin 159 

Hull. Isaac 169 

Huntington, Collis Potter 94 

Ingalls, John James 114 

Ingersoll, Robert G 85 

Irving, Washington 33 

Jackson, Andrew 71 

Jackson, " -Stonewall " 67 

Jackson, Thomas Jonathan 67 

Jay, John 39 

Jefferson, Joseph 47 

Jefferson, Thomas 34 

Johnson, Andrew 145 

Johnson, Eastman 202 

Johnston, Joseph Eccleston... . 85 

Jones, James K 171 

Jones, John Paul 97 

Jones, Samuel Porter 115 

Kane, Elisha Kent 125 

Kearney, Philip 210 

Kenton, Simon 188 

Knox, John Jay 134 

Lamar, Lucius Q. C 201 

Landon, Melville D 109 

Lee, Robert Edward 38 

Lewis, Charles B 193 

Lincoln, Abraham 135 

Livermore, Mary Ashton 131 

Locke, David Ross 172 

Logan, John A 26 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth 37 

Longstreet, James 56 

Lowell, lames Russell 104 

Mackay, John William 148 

Madison, James 42 

Marshall, John 156 

Mather, Cotton 164 

Mather, Increase 163 

Maxim, Hiram S 194 

McClellan, George Brinton 47 

McCormick, Cyrus Hall 172 

McDonough, Com. Thomas.. . 167 

McKinley, William 217 

Meade, George Gordon 75 

Medill, Joseph 159 

Miles, Nelson A 176 

Miller, Cincinnatus Heine 218 

Miller, Joaquin 218 

Mills, Roger Quarles 211 

Monroe, James 54 

Moody, Dwight L 207 

Moran, Thomas 98 

Morgan, John Pierpont 208 

Morgan, John T 216 

Morris, Robert 165 

Morse, Samuel F. B 124 

Morton, Levi P 142 

.Morton, Oliver Perry 215 

Motley, John Lathrop 130 

"Nye, Bill" 59 

Nye, Edgar Wilson 59 



PAGE 

O'Conor, Charles 187 

OIney, Richard 133 

Paine, Thomas 147 

Palmer, John M 195 

Parkhurst, Charles Henry 160 

"Partington, .Mrs." 202 

Peabody, George 170 

Peck, George W 187 

Peffer, William A 164 

Perkins, Eli 109 

Perry, Oliver Hazard 97 

Phillips, Wendell 30 

Pierce, Franklin 122 

Pingrce, Hazen S 212 

Plant, Henry B 192 

Poe, Edgar Allen 69 

Polk, James Knox 102 

Porter, David Dixon 68 

Porter, Noah 93 

Prentice, George Denison.. . . 119 

Prescott, William Hickling 96 

Pullman, George Mortimer 121 

Quad, M 193 

Quay Matthews 171 

Randolph, Edmund 136 

Read, Thomas Buchanan 132 

Reed, Thomas Brackett 208 

Reid, Whitelaw 149 

Roach, John 190 

Rockefeller, John Davison 195 

Root, George Frederick 218 

Rothermel, Peter F 113 

Rutledge, John 67 

Sage, Russell 211 

Schofield, John McAllister 199 

Schurz, Carl 201 

Scott, Thomas Alexander 204 

Scott, Winfield 79 

Seward, William Henry 44 

Sharon, William 165 

Shaw, Henry W 166 

Sheridan, Phillip Henry 40 

Sherman, Charles R 87 

Sherman, John 86 

Shillaber, Benjamin Penhallow 202 

Sherman, William Tecumseh.. 30 

Smith, Eilmuiul Kirby 114 

Sousa, John Philip 60 

Spreckels, Claus 169 

Stanford, Leiand 101 

Stanton, Edwin McMasters... 179 

.Stanton, Elizabeth Cady 126 

Stephens, Alexander Hamilton 32 

Stephenson, Adiai Ewing.. . . 141 

Stewart, Alexander T 58 

Stewart, William Morris 213 

Stowe, Harriet Elizabeth 

Beecher 66 

Stuart, James E. B 122 

Sumner, Charles 34 

Talmage, Thomas DeWitt . . 60 

Taney, Roger Brook' 129 

Taylor, Zacharv 108 

Teller, Henry Si 127 



TABLE OF CONTENTS— PART I 



PAGE 

Tesla, Nikola 193 

Thomas, George H 73 

Thomas, Theodore 172 

Thurman, Allen G 90 

Thurston, John M Itifi 

Tililen, Samuel J 48 

Tillman, Benjamm Ryan 119 

Toombs, Robert 205 

"Twain, Mark" 86 

Tyler, lohn 93 

\'an Buren, Martin 78 

X'anderbilt, Cornelius 35 

Vail. Alfred 154 

Vest, George Graham 214 



PAGE 

Vilas, William Freeman 140 

Voorhees, Daniel Wolsey 95 

Walte, Morrison Remich 125 

Wallace, Lewis 199 

Wallack, Lester 121 

Wallack, John Lester 121 

Wanainaker, John 89 

Ward, "Artemus" 91 

Washlnirne, Elihu Benjamin. . 189 

Washington, George ? 17 

. Watson, Thomas E 178 

Watterson, Henry 76 

Weaver, James B 123 

Webster. Daniel 19 



PAGE 

Webster. Noah 49 

Weed, Thurlow 91 

West, Benjamin 115 

Whipple, Henry Benjamin. . . . 161 

White, Stephen \' 162 

Whitelield, George 160 

Whitman, Walt 197 

Whitney, Eli 120 

Whitney, William Collins 92 

Whittier, John Greenleaf 67 

Willard, Frances E 133 

Wilson, William L 180 

Winchell, Alexander 175 

Windom, William 138 



PORTRAITS OF NATIONAL CELEBRITIES. 



PAGE 

Alger, Russell A 16 

Allison, William B 99 

Anthony, Susan B 63 

Armour, Philip D 151 

Arthur, Chester A 81 

Barnum, Phineas T 117 

Beecher, Henry Ward 27 

Blaine, James G 151 

Booth, Edwin 63 

Bryan, Wm. J 63 

Bryant, William Cullen 185 

Buchanan, James 81 

Buckner, Simon B 16 

Butler Benjamin F 151 

Carlisle, John G 151 

Chase, Salmon P 16 

Childs, George W 99 

Clay, Henry 81 

Cleveland, Grover 45 

Cooper, Peter 99 

Dana, Charles A 151 

Depew, Chauncey M 117 

Douglass, Fred 63 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo 27 

Evarts, William M 99 

Farragut, Com. D. G 186 

Field, Cyrus W 63 



PAGE 

Field, Marshall 117 

Franklin, Bt-njamin 63 

Fremont, Gen. John C 16 

Gage, Lyman J 151 

Garfield, James A 45 

Garrison, William Lloyd 63 

George, Henry 117 

Gould, lay 99 

Grant, Gen. U. S 185 

Greeley, Horace 81 

Hampton, Wade 16 

Hancock, Gen. Winfield S 185 

Hanna, ^L■^rkA 117 

Harrison, lienjamin 81 

Hayes, R. B 46 

Hendricks, Thomas A 81 

Holmes, Oliver W 151 

Hooker, Gen. Joseph 16 

Ingersoll, Robert G 117 

Irving, Washington 27 

Jackson, Andrew 45 

Jefferson, Thomas 45 

Johnston, Gen. J. E 16 

Lee, Gen. Robert E 185 

Lincoln, Abraham 81 

Logan, Gen. lohn A 16 

Longfellow, Henry W 185 



PACE 

Longstreet, Gen. James 16 

Lowell, James Russell 27 

McKinley, William 45 

Morse, S. F. B 185 

Phillips, Wendell 27 

Porter, Com. D. D 185 

Pullman, George M 117 

Quay, M. S 99 

Reed, Thomas B 151 

Sage, Russell 117 

Scott, Gen. Wintield 185 

Seward, William H 45 

Sherman, John 99 

Sherman, Gen. W. T 151 

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady 27 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher 27 

Sumner. Charles 45 

Talmage, T. DeWitt 63 

Teller, Henry M 99 

Thurman, Allen G 81 

Tilden, Samuel J 117 

Van Buren, Martin 81 

Vanderbilt, Commodore 99 

Webster, Daniel 27 

Whittier, John G 2^ 

Washington, George 45 

Watterson, Henry 63 



INDKX 



PAGE 

Austin, Charles 485 

Avers, \V. E 288 

Bailey, Lewis 307 

Bailey, Mrs. L. M 393 

Baird, James 423 

Baldwin. H. J 268 

Baldwin, W. H 223 

Ball, A. G 424 

Ball, C. B 425 

Barnes, George C 543 

Beach, Oliadiah 413 

Beahan, James 376 

Beardslee, Amos 250 

Beardsley, Philo 531 

Becker, A. G 233 

Beckwith, C. S 543 

Beecher, Truman G 277 

Bell. Dr. Robert 290 

Bess, Lewis F 508 

Bicknell, Dr. G. C 311 

Birdsall, J. E 374 

Bis.sell, E. R 427 

Bower, O. P 482 

Boyd, John A 450 

Boyne, Edwin 285 

Boyne, Moses 284 

Bradley, L. H 333 

Burch, Lester 527 

Carey, Fred 501 

Carney, Hugh 385 

Carver, Ira 271 

Case, G. A 284 

Cass, M. M 383 

Catlin, H. B 372 

Catlin, Phineas 371 

Chapman, A. F 521 

Chapman, Charles 530 

Chapman, George H 529 



PAGE 

Charles, Simon 419 

Clark. Thomas R 23s 

Clawson, Charles D 436 

Coats, J. B 516 

Cole, Fremont 251 

Cole, S. B 481 

Coon, Samuel M 411 

Corbett, J. Wallace 316 

Corbett, O. R 227 

Corby. James H 453 

Couch, Capt. H. L 326 

Covert, S. H 532 

Covert, Abraham C 534 

Cramer, Michael 539 

Crawford, Albert 401 

Crawford, D. S 525 

Crawford, J. B 467 

Crawford. Leonard 466 

Crippen. James 455 

Cronk, William 278 

Crout, W. A 443 

Davies, J. L 536 

Davis, Frederick 286 

Day, Charles 355 

Dean, Erastus 526 

Decker, H. F 429 

Dcmun. Matthias 414 

Dcnison, William W 542 

Denning. George 480 

Dewey, George J 455 

Dibble, Charles Schuyler 390 

Dibble, Perry 331 

Dickens, Clarence 305 

Doty. Isaac E 249 

Durgec, W. L 354 

Dnrland, L. H 345 

Dusenl)erry, Joseph R 358 

Elli.s, C. N 240 



PAGE 

Ely, George M 336 

Ely, William B 374 

Ennis, Fred S 500 

Everts, C. H 295 

Everts, C. M 488 

Everts, J. B 283 

Evleth, Atwood 337 

Fcro, John 246 

Finlan, J. T 421 

Flanders, William 496 

Foley, John 403 

Ford, Alonzo 546 

Fordham, Dr. G. C 331 

Frost, C. S 321 

Frost, M. L 392 

Gano, L. M 360 

tianung. Scely R 507 

Gilison. Peter 384 

Gile. Oiarles D 370 

Goltry, Dr. G. H 347 

Gould, George W 312 

Grant, C. D 528 

Graves, Avery P 426 

Graves. Richard 412 

Gunderman, W. S 289 

Haddock, James A 404 

Hager, Charles H 267 

Hall, Jerome B 473 

Halwick, John 242 

Handrahan, John 332 

Hanley, James 389 

Hanley, S. 1 456 

Haring. Charles 448 

Haring. Garret 502 

Haring, George 458 

Haring, O. R 470 

Harvey. Frank A 541 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Haubner. Ignatz 304 

Hausmer, Jacob 524 

Ha wes, P. Halsey 396 

Heckman, George W 510 

Henyan, Addison 388 

Hicks, David 494 

Hillemian, C. D 363 

Hollett, B. B 403 

Hope, J. D 342 

Horning, G. C 439 

Howard, Daniel 232 

Howard, Henry S 462 

Howell, Wellington 339 

Hoxsie, Joshua 484 

Hughey, Joseph H 490 

Hughey, M. B 440 

Hurley, David 392 

Irish, F. F 319 

Jackson, Charles N 402 

Jayne. Ezra C 474 

Jeffers. W. H 514 

Jones, NicoII F 472 

Kimble, Charles 495 

Knapp, Albert 483 

I.ackerby. John 449 

LaDow, O. S 357 

LaFever, Lovett 428 

LaRuc. H. B 447 

Lee, Franklin 468 

Lee, George 465 

Leffingwcll. W. E 308 

Leonard, Herbert J 457 

Lockwood, G. C 511 

Mack, E. J 45 1 

Macreery, John B 499 

McCrecry, Mrs. Margaret.... 386 

Magec, Duncan S 248 

Magee, Gen. George J 223 

Magee. Col. John 236 

Magce, Hon. John 254 

Mahoney, Mrs. Elizabeth 373 

Main, Tracy M 505 

Maloney. Richard 323 

Martin. .'\. 1 231 

^rarti^, W. S 356 

Matthews, Milford 359 



PAGE 

Meeks, Ira B 312 

Messig, Carrol 464 

Messig. William 480 

Miller, AnK>s 338 

Miller, Frank L 378 

Moore, E. V 454 

Moran, W. J 306 

Nagle, John 296 

Nordike, J. L 538 

Norrhrup. F. W 420 

Northrup. Seaman F 421 

Nye. Olin T 243 

O'Day, Peter 519 

Ogden, John W 264 

Page. Jonathan 444 

Palmer, Benjamin 364 

Palmer, J. D 324 

Palmer, S. H 366 

Palmer. William C 395 

Parker, Darius 474 

Parker. George 475 

Parker, Edmund 303 

Patchen. Charles H 315 

Patterson, James 520 

Payne. C. A 426 

Pecorara. .Albert 394 

Piper, B. 1 476 

Prentiss, Horace J 518 

Price. John X 463 

Quick. James M 517 

Randall, John 446 

Redncr, Herman L 509 

Redncr. Virgil ' 506 

Reich. Carl August 417 

Reynolds. D. M 286 

Rhodes. C. B 382 

Rich, C. B 439 

Ringer, George A 333 

Rorick, Cornelius 537 

Rorick, Peter 469 

Rosebrook, Lorenzo 535 

Rosenkrans. George W 344 

Sayler, II. C 471 

Schuyler. John Edwin 333 

Scobcy. Benjamin W 430 



PAGE 

Seaman, W. D 280 

Shappie, David 484 

Sherman, W. S 369 

Shulcnburg. J. H 270 

Sirrine, Fred B 538 

Sloane, C. A 410 

Smith. J. B 493 

Smith, Osborn 331 

Smith, William V 261 

Soule, George Aiken 486 

Stalcy, Luther C 281 

Stewart. Alexander 526 

Stilwell, Dr. H. Proper 349 

Stoughton, James H 512 

Sullivan, J. D 387 

Sullivan, P. B 323 

Suppler, William 498 

Sutphen, Charles M 314 

Sutphen, Peter 313 

Swan, Elias 487 

Swick, John H 367 

Swick. Oliver P 435 

Tompkins, Ira S 513 

Townsend, J. W 241 

Tucker, W. J 252 

L'lman. Cyranus 340 

Van .Mien, Cornelius 297 

Van Allen, J. J 298 

Vanderhoof. Dr. W. W 318 

\'an Doren, H. W 301 

Vedder, H. S 407 

Wait, George C 276 

Wait. Hon. W. H 272 

Wallenbeck. W. G 318 

Warden, William 491 

Wangh, William 263 

Waugh. W. S 330. 

Wickham, Clark 230 

Wickham. M. L 247 

Wickham, William 418 

Williams, John D 498 

Williams, O. H 266 

Wilson, Peter 492 

Wilcox, W. D 497 

Winne. C. W 340 

Wispert. George .^88 

Woodward, .\rthur C 303 



/ 




i'c^^ 



Celebrated Americans 



^^i^^i^^,^]^ 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 

. . OF . . 




M^ 



'^1^'^^'^J^'^i^ 



L.^-^^0 




|EORGE WASHINGTON, 

the first president of the Unit- 
ed States, called the "Father 
of his Country," was one of 
the most celebrated characters 
in history. He was born Feb- 
ruary 22, 1732, in Washing- 
ton Parish, Westmoreland county, Virginia. 
His father, Augustine Washington, first 
married Jane Butler, who bore him four 
children, and March t, 1730, he -married 
Mary Ball. Of six children by his second 
marriage, George was the eldest. 

Little is known of the early years of 
Washington, beyond the fact that the house 
in which he was born was burned during his 
early childhood, and that his father there- 
iip(jn moved to another farm, inherited from 
his paternal ancestors, situated in Stafford 
county, on the north bank of the Rappahan- 
nock, and died there in 1743. From earliest 
childhood George developed a noble charac- 
ter. His education was somewhat defective, 
being confined to the elementary branches 
taught him by his mother and at a neighbor- 
ing school. On leaving school he resided 
some time at Mount Vernon with his half 




brother, Lawrence, who acted as his guar- 
dian. George's inclinations were for a sea- 
faring career, and a midshipman's warrant 
was procured for him; but through the oppo- 
sition of his mother the project was aban- 
doned, and at the age of si.xteen he was 
appointed surveyor to the immense estates 
of the eccentric Lord Fairfax. Three years 
were passed by Washington in a rough fron- 
tier life, gaining experience which afterwards 
proved very essential to him In 1751, 
when the Virginia militia were put under 
training with a view to active service against 
France, Washington, though only nineteen 
years of age, was appointed adjutant, with 
the rank of major. In 1752 Lawrence 
Washington died, leaving his large property 
to an infant daughter. In his will George 
was named one of the executors and as an 
eventual heir to Mount Vernon, and by the 
death of the infant niece, soon succeeded to 
that estate. In 1753 George was commis- 
sioned adjutant-general of the Virginia 
militia, and performed important work at 
the outbreak of the French and Indian 
war, was rapidly promoted, and at the close of 
that war we find him commander-in-chief of 



•i^Trlxht ISV;. hj Gm. a, OfU * C«. 



18 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



all the forces raised in Virginia. A cessation 
of Indian hostilities on the frontier having 
followed the expulsion of the French from 
the Ohio, he resigned his commission as 
commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, 
and then proceeded to Williamsburg to take 
his seat in the Virginia Assembly, of which 
he had been elected a member. 

January 17, 1759, Washington marred 
Mrs. Martha (Dandridge) Curtis, a young 
and beautiful widow of great wealth, and 
devoted himself for the ensuing fifteen years 
to the quiet pursuits of agriculture, inter- 
rupted only by the annual attendance in 
winter upon the colonial legislature at 
Williamsburg, until summoned by his coun- 
try to enter upon that other arena in which 
his fame was to become world-wide. The 
war for independence called Washington 
into service again, and he was made com- 
mander-in-chief of the colonial forces, and 
was the most gallant and conspicuous figure 
in that bloody struggle, serving until Eng- 
land acknowledged the independence of 
each of the thirteen States, and negotiated 
with thetn jointly, as separate sovereignties. 
December 4, 1783, the great commander 
took leave of his officers in most affection- 
ate and patriotic terms, and went to An- 
napolis, Maryland, where the congress of 
the States was in session, and to tiiat body, 
when peace and order prevailed everywhere, 
resigned his commission and retired to 
Mount Vernon. 

It was in 1 789 that Washington was 
called to the chief magistracy of the na- 
tion. The inauguration took place April 
30, in the presence of an immense multi- 
tude which had assembled to witness the new 
and imposing ceremony. In the manifold de- 
tails of his civil administration Washington 
proved himself fully equal to the requirements 
of his position. In 1792, at the second presi- 



dential election, Washington was desirous 
to retire; but he yielded to the general wish 
of the country, and was again chosen presi- 
dent. At the third election, in 1796, he 
was again most urgently entreated to con- 
sent to remain in the executive chair. This 
he positively refused, and after March 4, 
1797, he again retired to Mount Vernon 
for peace, quiet, and repose. 

Of the call again made on this illustrious 
chief to quit his repose at Mount Ver- 
non and take command of all the United 
States forces, with rank of lieutenant-gen- 
eral, when war was threatened with France 
in 1798, nothing need here be stated, ex- 
cept to note the fact as an unmistakable 
testimonial of the high regard in which he 
was still held by his countrymen of all 
shades of political opinion. He patriotic- 
ally accepted this trust, but a treaty of 
peace put a stop to all action under it. ' He 
again retired to Mount Vernon, where he 
died December 14, 1799, in the sixty-eighth 
year of his age. His remains were depos- 
ited in a family vault on the banks of the 
Potomac, at Mount Vernon, where they still 
lie entombed. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, an eminent 
American statesman and scientist, was 
born of poor parentage, January 17, 1706, 
in Boston, Massachusetts. He was appren- 
ticed to his brother James to learn the print- 
er's trade to prevent his running away and 
going to sea, and also because of the numer- 
ous family his parents had to support (there 
being seventeen children, Benjamin being 
the fifteenth). He was a great reader, and 
soon developed a taste for writing, and pre- 
pared a number of articles and had them 
published in the paper without his brother's 
knowledge, and when the authorship be- 
came known it resulted in difficuky for the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAFHr. 



1) 



young apprentice, although his articles had 
been received with favor by the public. 
James was afterwards thrown into prison for 
political reasons, and young Benjamin con- 
ducted the paper alone during the time. In 
1823, however, he determined to endure his 
bonds no longer, and ran away, going to 
Philadelphia, where he arrived with only 
three pence as his store of wealth. With 
these he purchased three rolls, and ate them 
as he walked along the streets. He soon 
found employment as a journeyman printer. 
Two years later he was sent to England by 
the governor of Pennsylvania, and was 
promised the public printing, but did not get 
it. On his return to Philadelphia he estab- 
lished the '"Pennsylvania Gazette," and 
soon found himself a person of great popu- 
larity in the province, his ability as a writer, 
philosopher, and politician having reached 
the neighboring colonies. He rapidly grew 
in prominence, founded the Philadelphia Li- 
brary in 1842, and two years later the 
American Philosophical Society and the 
University of Pennsylvania. He was made 
Fellow of the Royal Society in London in 
1775. His world-famous investigations in 
electricity and lightning began in 1746. He 
became postmaster-general of the colonies 
in 1753, having devised an inter-colonial 
postal system. He advocated the rights of 
the colonies at all times, and procured the 
repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766. He was 
elected to the Continental congress of 1775, 
and in 1776 was a signer of the Declaration 
of Independence, being one of the commit- 
tee appointed to draft that paper. He rep- 
resented the new nation in the courts of 
Europe, especially at Paris, where his simple 
dignity and homely wisdom won him the 
admiration of the court and the favor of the 
people. He was governor of Pennsylvania 
tour vears; was also a member of the con- 



vention in 1787 that drafted the constitution 
of the United States. 

His writings upon political topics, anti- 
slavery, finance, and economics, stamp him 
as one of the greatest statesmen of his time, 
while his "Autobiography" and "Poor 
Richard's Almanac" give him precedence in 
the literary field. In early life he was an 
avowed skeptic in religious matters, but 
later in life his utterances on this subject 
were less extreme, though he never ex- 
pressed approval of any sect or creed. He 
died in Philadelphia April 17, 1790. 



DANIEL WEBSTER.— Of world wide 
reputation for statesmanship, diplo- 
macy, and oratory, there is perhaps no more 
prominent figure in the history of our coun- 
try in the interval between i8r5 and 1S61, 
than Daniel Webster. He was born at 
Salisbury (now Franklin), New Hampshire, 
January 18, 1782, and was the second son 
of Ebenezer and Abigail (Eastman) Webster. 
He enjoyed but limited educational advan- 
tages in childhood, but spent a few months 
in 1797, at Phillip Exeter Academy. He 
completed his preparation for college in the 
family of Rev. Samuel Wood, at Boscawen, 
and entered Dartmouth College in the fall 
of 1797. He supported himself most of the 
time during these years by teaching school 
and graduated in 180 1, having the credit of 
being the foremost scholar of his class. He 
entered the law office of Hon. Thomas \V. 
Thompson, at Salisbury. In 1S02 he con- 
tinued his legal studies at Fryeburg, Maine, 
where he was principal of the academy and 
copyist in the office of the register of 
deeds. In the office of Christopher Gore, 
at Boston, he completed his studies in 
1804-5, ^^^ was admitted to the bar in the 
latter year, and at Boscawen and at Ports- 
mouth soon rose to eminence in his profes- 



20 



COMPENDIUM OF BTOGRAPHT. 



sion. He became known as a federalist 
but did not court political honors; but, at- 
tracting attention by his eloquence in oppos- 
ing the war with England, he was elected 
to congress in 1S12. During the special 
session of May, 1813, he was appointed on 
the committee on foreign affairs and made 
his maiden speech June 10. 1S13. Through- 
out this session (as afterwards) he showed 
his mastery of the great economic questions 
of the day. He was re-elected in 1S14. In 
1 8 16 he removed to Boston and for seven 
years devoted himself to his profession, 
sarning by his arguments in the celebrated 
"Dartmouth College Case" rank among 
the most distinguished jurists of the country. 
!n 1820 Mr. Webster was chosen a member 
of the state convention of Massachusetts, to 
revise the constitution. The same year he 
delivered the famous discourse on the " Pil- 
grim fathers," which laid the foundation for 
his fame as an orator. Declining a nomi- 
nation for United States senator, in 1822 he 
was elected to the lower house of congress 
and was re-elected in 1S24 and 1826, but in 
1S27 was transferred to the senate. He 
retained his seat in the latter chamber until 
1 84 1. During this time his voice was ever 
lifted in defence of the national life and 
honor and although politically opposed to 
him he gave his support to the administra- 
tion of President Jackson in the latter's con- 
test with nullification. Through all these 
/-ears he was ever found upon the side of 
v'ight and justice and his speeches upon all 
ihe great questions of the day have be- 
come household words in almost every 
liinily. In 1841 Mr. Webster was appointed 
secretary of state by President Harrison 
and was continued in the same office by 
President Tyler. While an incumbent of 
thisofiice he showed consummate ability as 
a diplomat in the negotiation of the " Ash- 



burton treaty " of August 9, 1849, which 
settled many points of dispute between the 
United States and England. In May, 1843, 
he resigned his post and resumed his pro- 
fession, and in December, 1845, took his 
place again in the senate. He contributed 
in an unofficial way to the solution of the 
Oregon question with Great Britain in 1847. 
He was disappointed in 1848 in not receiv- 
ing the nomination for the presidency. He 
became secretary of state under President 
Fillmore in 1850 and in dealing with all the 
complicated questions of the day showed a 
wonderful mastery of the arts of diplomacy. 
Being hurt in an accident he retired to his 
home at Marshfield, where he died Octo- 
ber 24, 1852. 

HORACE GREELEY. —As journalist, 
author, statesman and political leader, 
there is none more widely known than the 
man whose name heads this article. He 
was born in Amherst, New Hampshire, Feb- 
ruary 3, 181 1, and was reared upon a farm. 
At an early age he evinced, a remarkable 
intelligence and love of learning, and at 
the age of ten had read every book he could 
borrow for miles around. About 1821 the 
family removed to Westhaven, Vermont, 
and for some years young Greeley assisted 
in carrying on the farm. In 1826 heentered 
the office of a weekly newspaper at East 
Poultney, \'ermont, where he remained 
about four years. On the discontinuance 
of this paper he followed his father's 
family to Erie county, Pennsylvania, 
whither they had moved, and for a time 
worked at the printer's trade in that neigh- 
borhood. In 1 83 1 Horace went to New 
York City, and for a time found emploj'- 
ment as journeyman printer. January, 
1833, in partnership with Francis Story, he 
published the Morning Post, the first penny 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGIiA/'// T. 



21 



paper ever printed. This proved a failure 
and was discontinued after three weeks. 
The business of job printing was carried on, 
however, until the death of Mr. Story in 
July following. In company with Jonas 
Winchester, March 22, 1S34, Mr. Greeley 
commenced the publication of the Nciu 
1 orki-r, a weekly paper of a high character. 
For financial reasons, at the same time, 
Greeley wrote leaders for other papers, and, 
in 1838, took editorial ciiarge of the Jcffcr- 
sonian, a Whig paper published at Albany. 
In 1840, on the discontinuance of that sheet, 
he devoted his energies to the Log Cabin, a 
campaign paper in the interests of the Whig 
party. In the fall of 1S41 the latter paper 
was consolidated with the Nczo Yorker, un- 
der the name of the Tribune, the first num- 
ber of which was issued April 10, 184 1. At 
the head of this paper Mr. Greeley remained 
until the day of his death. 

In 1848 Horace Greeley was elected to 
the national house of representatives to 
fill a vacancy, and was a member of that 
body until March 4, 1849. In 1851 he went 
to Europe and served as a juror at the 
World's Fair at the Crystal Palace, Lon- 
don. In 1855, he made a second visit to 
the old world. In 1S59 he crossed the 
plains and received a public reception at 
San Francisco and Sacramento. He was a 
member of the Republican national con- 
vention, at Chicago in i860, and assisted in 
the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for 
President. The same year he was a presi- 
dential elector for the state of New York, 
and a delegate to the Loj-alist convention 
at Philadelphia. 

At the close of the war, in 1865, Mr. 
Greeley became a strong advocate of uni- 
versal amnesty and complete pacification, 
and in pursuance of this consented to be- 
come one of the bondsmen for Jefferson 



Davis, who was imprisoned for treason. In 
1SG7 he was a delegate to the New York 
state convention for the revision of the 
constitution. In 1870 he was defeated for 
congress in the Si.xth New York district. 
At the Liberal convention, which met in 
Cincinnati, in May, 1872, on the fifth ballot 
Horace Greeley was nominated for presi- 
dent and Jul)' following was nominated for 
the same office by the Democratic conven- 
tion at Baltimore. He was defeated by a 
large majority. The large amount of work 
done by him during the campaign, together 
with the loss of his wife about the same 
time, undermined his strong constitution, 
and he was seized with inflammation of the 
brain, and died November 29, 1872. 

In addition to his journalistic work, Mr. 
Greeley was the author of several meritori- 
ous works, among which were: " Hint^ 
toward reform," "Glances at Europe," 
" History of the struggle for slavery cxten 
sion," "Overland journey to San Francis- 
co," " The American conflict," and " Rec- 
ollections of a busy life." 



HENRY CLAY.— In writing of this em- 
inent American, Horace Greeley once 
said: " He was a matchless party chief, an 
admirable orator, a skillful legislator, wield- 
ing unequaled influence, not only over his 
friends, but even over those of his political 
antagonists who were subjected to the magic 
of his conversation and manners. " A law- 
yer, legislator, orator, and statesman, few 
men in history have wielded greater influ- 
ence, or occupied so prominent a place ia 
the hearts of the generation in which they 
lived. 

Henry Clay was born near Richmond, 
in Hanover county, Virginia, April 12, 
1777, the son of a poor Baptist preacher 
who died wlieii Henry was but five years 



22 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAI'Hr. 



old. The mother married again about ten 
years later and :emoved xo Kentucky leav- 
ing Henry a clerk in a store at Richmond. 
Soon afterward Henry Clay secured a posi- 
tion as copyist in the office of the clerk of the 
high court of chancery, and four years later 
entered the law office of Robert Brooke, 
then attorney general and later governor of 
his native state. In 1797 Henry Clay was 
licensed as a lawyer.and followed his mother 
to Kentucky, opening an office at Lexington 
and soon built up a profitable practice. 
Soon afterward Kentucky, in separating from 
Virginia, called a state convention for the 
purpose of framing a constitution, and Clay 
at that time took a prominent part, publicly 
urging the adoption of a clause providing 
for the abolition of slavery, but in this he 
was overruled, as he was fifty years later, 
when in the height of his fame he again ad- 
vised the same course when the state con- 
stitution was revised in 1S50. Young Clay 
took a very active and conspicuous part in 
the presidential campaign in 1800, favoring 
the election of Jefferson; and in 1803 was 
chosen to represent Fayette county in the 
state 'egislature. In 1806 General John 
Adair, then United States senator from 
Kentucky, resigned and Henry Clay was 
elected to fill the vacancy by the legislature 
and served through one session in which he 
at once assumed a prominent place. In 
1807 he was again a representative in the 
legislature and was elected speaker of the 
house. At this time originated his trouble 
with Humphrey Marshall. Clay proposed 
that each member clothe himself and family 
wholly in American fabrics, which Marshall 
characterized as the " language of a dema- 
gogue." This led to a duel in which both 
parties were slightly injured. In 1S09 
Henry Clay was again elected to fill a va- 
cancy in the United States senate, and two 



years later elected representative in tne low- 
er house of congress, being chosen speaker 
of the house. About this time war was de- 
clared against Great Britain, and Clay took 
a prominent public place during this strug- 
gle and was later one of the commissioners 
sent to Europe by President Madison to ne- 
gotiate peace, returning in September, 181 5, 
having been re-elected speaker of the 
house during his absence, and was re-elect- 
ed unanimously. He was afterward re- 
elected to congress and then became secre- 
tary of state und^r John Quincy Adams. 
In 1 83 1 he was again elected senator from 
Kentucky and remained in the senate most 
of the time until his death. 

Henry Clay was three times a candidate 
for the presidency, and once very nearly 
elected. He was the unanimous choice of 
the Whig party in 1 844 for the presidency, 
and a great effort was made to elect him 
but without success, his opponent, James K. 
Polk, carrying both Pennsylvania and New 
York by a very slender margin, while either 
of them alone would have elected Clay. 
Henry Clay died at Washington Jurie 29, 
1S52. 

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE was one 
of the most distinguished of American 
statesmen and legislators. He was born 
January 31, 1830, in Washington county, 
Pennsylvania, and received a thorough edu- 
cation, graduating at Washington College in 
1847. In early life he removed to Maine 
and engaged in newspaper work, becoming 
editor of the Portland ' -.Advertiser. " While 
yet a young man he gained distinction as a 
debater and became a conspicuous figure in 
political and public affairs. In 1862 he was 
elected to congress on the Republican ticket 
in Maine and was re-elected five times. In 
March, 1869, he was chosen speaker of the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



28 



house of representatives and was re-elected 
in 1 8/ 1 and again in I S73. IniS76hewas 
a representative in the lower house of con- 
gress and during that year was appointed 
United States senator by the Governor to 
fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of 
Senator Morrill, who had been appointed 
secretary of the treasury. Mr. Blaine 
served in the senate until March 5, 1881, 
when President Garfield appointed him sec- 
retary of state, which position he resigned 
in December, 1881. Mr. Blaine was nom- 
inated for the presidency by the Republic- 
ans, at Chicago in June, 1SS4, but was de- 
feated by Grover Cleveland after an exciting 
and spirited campaign. During the later 
years of his life Mr. Blaine devoted most of 
his time to the completion of his work 
"Twenty Years in Congress," which had a 
remarkably large sale throughout the United 
States. Blaine was a man of great mental 
ability and force of character and during the 
latter part of his life %vas one of the most 
noted men of his time. He was the origina- 
torof what is termed the " reciprocity idea" 
in tariff matters, and outlined the plan of 
carrying it into practical effect. In 1876 
Robert G. Ingersoll in making a nominating 
speech placing Blaine's name as a candidate 
for president before the national Republican 
convention at Cincinnati, referred to Blaine 
as the " Plumed Knight " and this title clung 
to him during the remainder of his life. His 
death occurred at Washington, January 27, 
1893. 

f OHN CALDWELL CALHOUN, a dis- 
yJ tinguished .American statesman, was a 
native of South Carolina, born in Abbeville 
district, March 18, 1782. He was given 
the advantages of a thorough education, 
graduating at Yale College in 1804, and 
adopted the calling of a lawyer. A Demo- 



crat politically, at that time, he took a fore- 
most part in the councils of his party and 
was elected to congress in iSi i, supporting 
the tariff of 1816 and the establishing of 
the United States Bank. In 18 17 he be- 
came secretary of war in President Monroe's 
cabinet, and in 1 824 was elected vice-president 
of the United States, on the ticket with John 
Quincy Adams, and re-elected in 1 828, on the 
ticket with General Jackson. Shortly after 
this Mr. Calhoun became one of the strongest 
advocates of free trade and the principle of 
sovereignty of the states and was one of 
the originators of the doctrine that "any 
state could nullify unconstitutional laws of 
congress." Meanwhile Calhoun had be- 
come an aspirant for the presidency, and 
the fact that General Jackson advanced the 
interests of his opponent, \'an Buren, led 
to a quarrel, and Calhoun resigned the vice- 
presidency in 1832 and was elected United 
States senator from South Carolina. It was 
during the same year that a convention was 
held in South Carolina at which the " Nul- 
lification ordinance" was adopted, the ob- 
ject of which was to test the constitution- 
ality of the protective tariff measures, and 
to prevent if possible the collection of im- 
port duties in that state which had been 
levied more for the purpose of ' ' protection ' 
than revenue. This ordinance was to go 
into effect in February, 1833, and created a 
great deal of uneasiness throughout the 
country as it was feared there would be a 
clash between the state and federal authori- 
ties. It was in this serious condition oi 
public affairs that Henry Clay came forward 
with the the famous "tariff compromise " 
of 1833, to which measure Calhoun and 
most of his followers gave their support and 
the crisis was averted. In 1843 Mr. Cal- 
houn was appointed secretary ol state in 
President Tyiers cabinet, and it was under 



24 



COMI'EXDIUyf OF BIOGRAPHr. 



his administration that the treaty concern- 
ing the annexation of Texas was negotiated. 
In 1S45 he was re-elected to the United 
States senate and continued in the senate 
until his death, which occurred in March, 
1 850. He occupied a high ranli as a scholar, 
student and orator, and it is conceded that 
he was one of the greatest debaters America 
has produced. The famous debate between 
Calhoun and Webster, in 1S33. is regarded 
as the most noted for ability and eloquence 
in the history of the country. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER, one 
of America's most brilliant and pro- 
found lawyers and noted public men, was 
a native of New England, born at Deer- 
field, New Hampshire, November 5, 18 18. 
His father. Captain John Butler, was a 
prominent man in his day, commanded a 
company during the war of 181 3, and 
served under Jackson at New Orleans. 
Benjamin F. Butler was given an excellent 
education, graduated at Watervilie College, 
Maine, studied law, was admitted to the 
bar in 1840, at Lowell, Massachusetts, 
where he commenced the practice of his 
profession and gained a wide reputation for 
his ability at the bar, acquiring an extensive 
practice and a fortune. Early in life he 
began taking an active interest in military 
affairs and served in the state militia through 
all grades from private to brigadier-general. 
In 1853 he was elected to the state legisla- 
ture on the Democratic ticket in Lowell, 
and took a prominent part in the passage of 
legislation in the interests of labor. Dur- 
ing the same year he was a member of the 
constitutional convention, and in 1859 rep- 
resented his district in the Massachusetts 
senate. When the Civil war broke out 
General Butler took the field and remained 
at the front most of the time during that 



bloody struggle. Part of tne time he had 
charge of Fortress Monroe, and in Febru- 
ary, 1S62, took command of troops forming 
part of the expedition against New Orleans, 
and later had charge of the department of 
the jGulf. He was a conspicuous figure dur- 
ing the continuance of the war. After the 
close of hostilities General Butler resumed 
his law practice in Massachusetts and in 
1866 was elected to congress from the Es- 
sex district. In 1S82 he was elected gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, and in 1884 was the 
nominee of the " Greenback" part}' for 
president of the United States. He con- 
tinued his legal practice, and maintained his 
place as one of the most prominent men in 
New England until the time of his death, 
which occurred January 10, 1893. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS, an officer, states- 
man and legislator of prominence in 
America, gained the greater part of his fame 
from the fact that he was president of the 
southern confederacy. Mr. Davis was born 
in Christian county, Kentucky, June 3, 
1 808, and his early education and surround- 
ings were such that his sympathies and in- 
clinations were wholly with the southern 
people. He received a thorough education, 
graduated at West Point in 1828. and for a 
number of years served in the army at west- 
ern posts and in frontier service, first as 
lieutenant and later as adjutant. In 1835 
he resigned and became a cotton planter in 
Warren county. Mississippi, where he took 
an active interest in public affairs and be- 
came a conspicuous figure in politics. In 
1844 he was a presidential elector from 
Mississippi and during the two following 
years served as congressman from his dis- 
trict. He then became colonel of a iviissts- 
sippi regiment in the war with Mexico anfi 
participated in some of the most severe tui- 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV 



25 



lies, being seriously wounded at Buena 
Vista. Upon his return to private life he 
again took a prominent part in political af- 
fairs and represented his state in the United 
States senate from 184710 185 1. He then 
entered President Pierce's cabinet as secre- 
tary of war, after which he again entered 
the United States senate, remaining until 
the outbreak of the Civil war. He then be- 
came president of the southern confederacy 
and served as such until captured in May, 
1865, at Irwinville, Georgia. He was held 
as prisoner of war at Fortress Monroe, until 
1867, when he was released on bail and 
finally set free in 1868. His death occurred 
December 6. 1889. 

Jefferson Davis was a man of excellent 
abilities and was recognized as one of the 
best organizers of his day. He was a 
forceful and liuent speaker and a ready 
writer. He wrote and published the " Rise 
and Fall of the Southern Confederacy," a 
work which is considered as authority by 
the southern people. 



JOHN .ADAMS, the second president of 
the United States, and one of the most 
conspicuous figures in the early struggles of 
his country for independence, was born in 
the present town of Quincy, then a portion 
of Braintree, Massachusetts, October 30, 
1735. He received a thorough education, 
graduating at Harvard College in 1755, 
studied law and was admitted to the bar in 
1758. He was well adapted for this profes- 
sion and after opening an office in his native 
town rapidly grew in prominence and public 
favor and soon was regarded as one of the 
leading lawyers of the country. His atten- 
tion was called to political affairs by the 
passage of the Stamp Act, in 17G5, and he 
drew up a set of resolutions on the subject 
which were very popular. In 1768 he re- 



moved to Boston and became one of the 
most courageous and prominent advocates 
of the popular cause and was chosen a 
member of the Colonial legislature from 
Boston. He was one of the delegates that 
represented Massachusetts in the first Con- 
tinental congress, which met in September, 
1774. In a letter written at this crisis he 
uttered the famous words: "The die is now 
cast; I have passed the Rubicon. Sink or 
swim, live or die, survive or perish with my 
country, is my unalterable determination." 
He was a prominent figure in congress and 
advocated the movement for independence 
when a majority of the members were in- 
clined to temporize and to petition the King. 
In May. 1776, he presented a resolution in 
congress that the colonies should assume 
the duty of self-government, which was 
passed. In June, of the same year, a reso- 
lution that the United States "are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent," 
was moved by Richard H. Lee, seconded by 
Mr. Adams and adopted by a small majority. 
Mr. Adams w-as a member of the committee 
of five appointed June 1 1 to prepare a 
declaration of independence, in support of 
wliich he made an eloquent speech. He was 
chairman of the Board of War rn 1776 and 
in 1 778 was sent as commissioner to France, 
but returned the following year. In 17S0 
he went to Europe, having been appointed 
as minister to negotiate a treaty of peace 
and commerce with Great Britain. Con- 
jointly with Franklin and Jay he negotiated 
a treaty in 1782. He was employed as a 
minister to the Court of St. James from 
1785 to 178S, and during that period wrote 
his famous "Defence of the American Con- 
stitutions." In 1789 he became vice-presi- 
dent of the United States and was re-elected 
in 1792. 

In 1 796 Mr. Adams was chosen presi- 



26 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



dent of the United States, his competitor 
being Thomas Jefferson, who became vice- 
president. In 1800 he was the Federal 
candidate for president, but he was not 
cordially supported by Gen. Hamilton, the 
favorite leader of his party, and was de- 
feated by Thomas Jefferson. 

Mr. Adams then retired from public life 
to his large estate at Quincy, Mass., where 
he died July 4, 1826, on the same day that 
witnessed the death of Thomas Jefferson. 
Though his physical frame began to give way 
many years before his death, his mental 
powers retained their strength and vigor to 
the last. In his ninetieth year he was glad- 
dened by .the elevation of his son, John 
Quincy Adams, to the presidential office. 



HENRY WARD BEECHER, one of the 
most celebrated American preachers 
and authors, was born at Litchfield, Connec- 
ticut, June 24,1813. His father was Dr. Ly- 
man Beecher, also an eminent divine. At 
an early age Henry Ward Beecher had a 
strong predilection for a sea-faring life, and 
it was practically decided that he would fol- 
low this inclination, but about this time, in 
consequence of deep religious impressions 
which he experienced during a revival, he 
renounced his former intention and decided 
to enter the ministry. After having grad- 
uated at Amherst College, in 1834, he stud- 
ied theology at Lane Seminary under the 
tuition of his father, who was then president 
of that institution. In 1847 he became pas- 
tor of the Plymouth Congregational church 
in Brooklyn, where his oratorical ability and 
original eloquence attracted one of the larg- 
est congregations in the country. He con- 
tinued to served this church until the time 
of his death, March 8, 1887. Mr. Beecher 
alsr *'ound time for a great amount of liter- 
ary w.nk For a number of years he was 



editor of the "Independent" and also the 
"Christian Union." He also produced many 
works which are widely known. Among his 
principal productions are "Lectures to Young 
Men," " Star Papers. " "Life of Christ," 
"Life Thoughts," "Royal Truths" (a 
novel), "Norwood," " Evolution and Rev- 
olution," and " Sermons on Evolution and 
Religion. " Mr. Beecher was also long a 
prominent advocate of anti-slavery princi- 
ples and temperance reform, and, at a later 
period, of the rights of women. 



JOHN A. LOGAN, the illustrious states- 
man and general, was born in Jackson 
county, Illinois, February 9, 1824. In his 
boyhood days he received but a limited edu- 
cation in the schools of his native county. 
On the breaking out of the war with Mexico 
he enlisted in the First Illinois Volunteers 
and became its quartermaster. At the close 
of hostilities he returned home and was 
elected clerk of the courts of Jackson county 
in 1849. Determining to supplement his 
education Logan entered the Louisville Uni- 
versit}', from which he graduated in 1852 
and taking up the study of law was admitted 
to the bar. He attained popularity and suc- 
cess in his chosen profession and was elected 
to the legislature in 1852, 1853, 1856 and 
1857. He was prosecuting attorney from 
1853 to 1857. He was elected to congress 
in 1858 to fill a vacancy and again in i860. 
At the outbreak of the Rebellion, Logan re- 
signed his office and entered the army, and 
in September, 1861, was appointed colonel 
of the Thirty-first Illinois Infantry, which he 
led in the battles of Belmont and Fort Don- 
elson. In the latter engagement he was 
wounded. In March, 1862, he was pro- 
moted to be brigadier-general and in the 
following month participated in the battles 
o' t^'ttslnirg Landing. In November, 1862, 



COMPEXDIUM OF JJ/OCKA/'J/l'. 



29 



for gallant conduct he was made major-;?en- 
eral. Throii;:;hoiit the Vicksburg campaign 
he was in command of a division of the Sev- 
enteenth Corps and was distinguished at 
Port Gibson, Champion Kills and in the 
siege and capture cf Vicksburg. In October. 
1S63. he was placed in command of the 
Fifteenth Corps, which he led with great 
credit. During the terrible conflict before 
Atlanta, July 22, 1864, on the death of 
General McPherson, Logan, assuming com- 
mand of the Army of the Tennessee, led it 
on to victory, saving the day by his energy 
and ability. He was shortly after succeeded 
by General O. O. Howard and returned to 
the command of his corps. He remained 
in command until the presidential election, 
when, feeling that his influence was needed 
at home he returned thither and there re- 
mained until the arrival of Sherman at Sa- 
vannah, when General Logan rejoined his 
command. In May, 1865, he succeeded 
General Howard at the head of the Army of 
the Tennessee. He resigned from the army 
in August, the same year, and in November 
was appointed minister to Mexico, but de- 
clined the honor. He served in the lower 
house of the fortieth and forty -first con- 
gresses, and was elected United States sena- 
tor from his native state in 1S70, 1878 and 
1885. He was nominated for the vice-presi- 
dency in 1 884 on the ticlcet with Blaine, but 
was defeated. General Logan was the 
author of "The Great Conspiracy, its origin 
and history," published in 1S85. He died 
at Washington, December 26, 1886. 



JOHN CHARLES FREMONT, the first 
<J Republican candidate for president, was 
born in Savannah, Georgia, January 2I; 
18 1 3. He graduated from Charleston Col- 
lege (South Carolina') in 1830, and turned his 
attention to civil engineering. He was shortly 

2 



afterward employed in the department of 
government surveys on th'i Mississippi, and 
constructing maps of that region. He was 
made lieutenant of engineers, and laid be- 
fore the war department a plan for pene- 
trating the Rocky Mountain regions, which 
was accepted, and in 1842 he set out upon 
his first famous exploring expedition and ex- 
plored the South Pass. He also planned an 
expedition to Oregon bj' a new route further 
south, but afterward joined his expedition 
with that of Wilkes in the region of the 
Great Salt Lake. He made a later expedi- 
tion which penetrated the Sierra Nevadas, 
and the San Joaquin and Sacramento river 
valleys, making maps of all regions explored. 
In 1845 he conducted the great expedi- 
tion which resulted in the acquisition of 
California, which it was believed the Mexi- 
can government was about to dispose of to 
England. Learning that the Mexican gov- 
ernor was preparing to attack the American 
settlements in his dominion, Fremont deter- 
mined to forestall him. The settlers rallied 
to his camp, and in June, 1846, he defeated 
the Mexican forces at Sonoma Pass, and a 
month later completely routed the governor 
and his entire army. The Americans at 
once declared their independence of Mexico, 
and Fremont was elected governor of Cali- 
fornia. By this time Cotnmodore Stockton 
had reached the coast with instructions from 
Washington to conquer California. Fre- 
mont at once joined him in that effort, which 
resulted in the annexation of California with 
its untold mineral wealth. Later Fremont 
became involved in a difficulty with fellow 
officers which resulted in a court martial, 
aiid the surrender of his commission. He 
declined to accept reinstatement. He af- 
terward laid out a great road from the Mis- 
sissippi river to San Francisco, and became 
the first United States senator from Califor- 



30 



COMPEXUIUM Oh BIOGRAPHr 



nia, in 1849. In 1856 he was nominated 
by the new Republican party as its first can- 
didate for president against Buchanan, and 
received 1 14 electoral votes, out of 296. 

In 1 86 1 he was made major-general and 
placed in charge of the western department. 
He planned the reclaiming of the entire 
Mississippi valley, and gathered an army of 
thirty thousand men, with plenty of artil- 
lery, and was ready to move upon the con- 
federate General Price, when he was de- 
prived of his command. He was nominated 
for the presidency at Cincinnati in 1S64, but 
withdrew. He was governor of Arizona in 
1878, holding the position four years. He 
was interested in an engineering enterprise 
looking toward a great southern trans-con- 
tinental railroad, and in his later years also 
practiced law in New York. He died July 1 3, 
1890. 

WENDELL PHILLIPS, the orator and 
abolitionist, and a conspicuous figure 
in American history, was born November 
29, 181 1, at Boston, Massachusetts. He 
received a good education at Harvard 
College, from which he graduated in 1831, 
and then entered the Cambridge Law School . 
After completing his course in that institu- 
tion, in 1833, he was admitted to the bar, 
in 1834, at Suffolk. He entered the arena 
of life at the time when the forces of lib- 
erty and slavery had already begun their 
struggle that was to culminate in the Civil 
war. William Llo}d Garrison, by his clear- 
headed, courageous declarations of the anti- 
slavery principles, had done much to bring 
about this struggle. Mr. Phillips was not a 
man that could stand aside and see a great 
struggle being carried on in the interest of 
humanity and look passively on. He first 
attracted attention as an orator in 1837, at 
a meeting that was called to protest against 



the murder of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy. 
The meeting would have ended in a few 
perfunctory resolutions had not Mr. PhillipF 
by his manly eloquence taken the meeting 
out of the hands of the few that were in- 
clined to temporize and avoid radical utter- 
ances. Having once started out in this ca- 
reer as an abolitionist Phillips never swerved 
from what he deemed his duty, and never 
turned back. He gave up his legal practice 
and launched himself heart and soul in the 
movement for the liberation of the slaves. 
He was an orator of very great ability and 
by his earnest efforts and eloquence he did 
much in arousing public sentiment in behalf 
of the anti-slavery cause — possibly more 
than any one man of his time. After the 
abolition of slavery Mr. Phillips was, if pos- 
sible, even busier than before m the literary 
and lecture field. Besides temperance and 
women's rights, he lectured often and wrote 
much on finance, and the relations of labor 
and capital, and his utterances on whatever 
subject always bore the stamp of having 
emanated from a master mind. Eminent 
Clitics have stated that it might fairly be 
questioned whether there has ever spoken 
in America an orator superior to Phillips. 
The death of this great man occurred Feb- 
ruary 4, 1884. 



WILLLAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN 
was one of the greatest generals that 
the world has ever produced and won im- 
mortal fame by that strategic and famous 
" march to the sea," in the war of the Re- 
bellion. He was born February 8, 1820, at 
Lancaster, Ohio, and was reared in the 
family of the Hon. Thomas Ewing, as his 
father died when he was but nine years of 
age. He entered West Point in 1S36, wa? 
graduated from the same in 1S40, and ap- 
pointed a second lieutenant in the Third 



CUMJ'ESDIUM OF BIOGRArnr. 



81 



Artillery. He passed tliion;;h the various 
grades of the service and at the outbreak of 
the Civil war was appointed colonel of the 
Thirteenth Ref;;ular Infantry. A full history 
of General Sherman's conspicuous services 
would be to repeat a history of the army. 
He Commanded a division at Shiloh, and 
was instrumental in the winning; of that bat- 
tle, and w;.s also present at the siege of Vicks- 
burj<. On July 4, 1S63, he was appointed 
brigadier-general of the regular army, and 
shared with Hooker the victory of Mission- 
ary Ridge. He was commander of the De- 
partment of the Tennessee from October 
27th until the appjintiiient of General 
Grant as lieutenant-general, by whom he 
was appointed to the command of the De- 
farlment of the Mississippi, which he as- 
sumed in March, 1864. He at once began 
organizing the army and enlarging his com- 
munications preparatory to his march upon 
Atlanta, which he started the same time of 
ihe beginning of the Richmond campaign by 
Grant. He started on May 6, and was op- 
posed by Johnston, who had fifty thousand 
men, but by consummate generalship, he 
captured Atlanta, on September 2, after 
several months of hard lighting and a severe 
loss of men. General Sherman started on 
his famous march to the sea November 15, 
1864, and by December 10 he was before 
Savannah, which he took on December 23. 
This campaign is a monument to the genius 
of General Sherman as he only lost 567 
men from Atlanta to the sea. After rest- 
ing his army he moved northward and occu- 
pied the following places: Columbia, 
Cheravv, Fayetteville, Ayersboro, Benton- 
ville, Goldsboro, Raleigh, and April 18, he 
accepted the surrender of Johnston's army 
on a basis of agreement that was not re- 
ceived by the Government with favor, but 
finally accorded Johnston the same terms as 



Lee was given by General Grant. He was 
present at the grand review at Washington, 
and after the close of the war was appointed 
to the co:imiand of the military division of 
the Mississippi; later was appointed lieu- 
tenant-general, and assigned to the military 
division of the Missouri. When General 
Grant was elected president Sherman became 
general^ March 4, 1869, and succeeded to 
the command of the army. His death oc- 
curred February 14, 1S91, at Washington. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON, one of the 
most prominent of the early American 
statesmen and financiers, was born in Nevis, 
an island of the W'est Indies, January 11, 
1757, his father being a Scotchman and his 
mother of Huguenot descent. Owing to the 
death of his mother and business reverses 
which came to his father, young Hamilton 
was sent to his mother's relatives in Santa 
Cruz; a few years later was sent to a gram- 
mar school at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, 
and in 1773 entered what is now known as 
Columbia College. Even at that time he 
began taking an active part in public affairs 
and his speeches, pamphlets, and newspaper 
articles on political affairs of the day at- 
tracted considerable attention. ' In 1776 he 
received a captain's commission and served 
in Washington's army with credit, becoming 
aide-de-camp to \\'ashington with rank of 
lieutenant-colonel. In 1 781 he resigned his 
commission because of a rebuke from Gen- 
eral Washington. He next received com- 
mand of a New York battalion and partici- 
pated in the battle of Yorktown. After 
this Hamilton studied law, served several 
terms in congress and was a member of the 
convention at which the F"ederal Constitu- 
tion was drawn up. His work connected 
with "The Federalist" at about this time 
attracted much attention. Mr. Hamilton 



32 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



was chosen as the first secretary of the 
United States treasury and as such was the 
author of the funding system and founder of 
the United States Bank. In 1798 he was 
made inspector-general of the army with the \ 
rank of major-general and was also for a 
short time commander-in-chief. In 1804 
Aaron Burr, then candidate for governor of 
New York, challenged Alexander Hamilton 
to fight a duel, Burr attributing his defeat 
to Hamilton's opposition, and Hamilton, 
though declaring the code as a relic of bar- 
barism, accepted the challenge. They met 
at Weehawken, New Jersey, July 11, 1804. 
Hamilton declined to fire at his adversary, 
but at Burr's first fire was fatally wounded 
and died July 12, 1804. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPH- 
ENS, vice-president of the southern ' 
confederacy, a former United States senator 
and governor of Georgia, ranks among the 
great men of American history. He was born 
February 11, 181 2, near Crawfordsville, 
Georgia. He was a graduate of the Uni- 
versity of Georgia, and admitted to the bar 
in 1834. In 1837 he made his debut in 
political life as a member of the state house 
of representatives, and in 1 841 declined the 
nomination for the same office; but in 1S42 
he was chosen by the same constituency as 
state senator. Mr. Stephens was one of 
the promoters of the Western and Atlantic 
Railroad. In 1843 he was sent by his dis- 
trict to the national house of representatives, 
which office he held for si.xteen consec- 
utive years. He was a member of the 
house during the passing of the Compromise 
Bill, and was one of its ablest and most 
active supporters. The same year (1850) 
Mr. Stephens was a delegate to the state 
convention that framed the celebrated 
" Georgia Platform," and was also a dele- ; 



gate to the convention that passed the ordi- 
nance of secession, though he bitterly op- 
posed that bill by voice and vote, yet he 
readily acquiesced in their decision after 
it received the votes of the majority of the 
convention. He was chosen vice-president 
of the confederacy without opposition, and 
in 1865 he was the head of the commis- 
sion sent by the south to the Hampton 
Roads conference. He was arrested after 
the fall of the confederacy and was con- 
fined in Fort Warren as a prisoner of state 
but was released on his own parole. Mr. 
Stephens was elected to the forty-third, 
forty-fourth, forty-fifth, forty-sixth and for- 
ty-seventh congresses, with hardly more than 
nominal opposition. He was one of the 
Jeflersonian school of American politics. 
He wrote a number of works, principal 
among which are: "Constitutional \'iew 
of the War between the States," and a 
" Compendium of the History of the United 
States." He was inaugurated as governor 
of Georgia November 4th, 1882, but died 
March 4, 1883, before the completion of 
his term. 

ROSCOE CONKLING was one of the 
most noted and famous of American 
statesmen. He was among the most fin- 
ished, fluent and eloquent orators that have 
ever graced the halls of the American con- 
gress; ever ready, witty and bitter in de- 
bate he was at once admired and feared by 
his political opponents and revered by his 
followers. True to his friends, loyal to the 
last degree to those with whom his inter- 
ests were associated, he was unsparing to his 
foes and it is said "never forgot an injury." 
Roscoe Conkling was born at Albany, 
New York, on the 30th of October, 1829, 
being a son of Alfred Conkling. Alfred 
Conkling was also a native of New York, 



COMPENDIUM OF BJUURAPHT. 



83 



born at East Hampton, October 12, 1789, 
and became one of the most eminent law- 
yers in the Empire state; published several 
legal works; served a term in congress; aft- 
erward as United States district judge for 
Northern New York, and in 1S52 was min- 
ister to Mexico. Alfred Conkling died in 

1874. 

Roscoe Conkling, whose name heads 
this article, at an early age took up the 
study of law and soon became successful and 
prominent at the bar. About 1846 he re- 
moved to Utica and in 185S was elected 
mayor of that city. He was elected repre- 
sentative in congress from this district and 
was re-elected three times. In 1S67 he was 
elected United States senator from the state 
of New York and was re-elected in 1873 
and 1879. In May, 1881, he resigned on 
account of differences with the president. 
In March, 18S2, he was appointed and con- 
firmed as associate justice of the United 
States supreme court but declined to serve. 
His death occurred April 18, 18S8. 



WASHINGTON IRVING, one of the 
most eminent, talented and popu- 
lar of American authors, was born in New 
York City, April 3, 1783. His father was 
William Irving, a merchant and a native of 
Scotland, who had married an English lady 
and emigrated to America some twenty 
years prior to the birth of Washington. 
Two of the older sons, William and Peter, 
were partially occupied with newspaper 
work and literary pursuits, and this fact 
naturally inclined Washington to follow 
their example. Washington Irving was given 
the advantages afforded by the common 
schools until about sixteen years of age 
when he began studying law, but continued 
to acquire his literary training by diligent 
perusal at home of the older English writers. 



When nineteen he made his first literary 
venture by printing in the " Morning Chroni- 
cle," then edited by his brother, Dr. Peter 
Irving, a series of local sketches under the 
nom-de-pluine oi "Jonathan Oldstyle." In 
1804 he began an extensive trip through 
Europe, returned in 1806, quickly com- 
pleted his legal studies and was admitted to 
the bar, but never practiced the profession. 
In 1807 he began the amusing serial "Sal- 
magundi," which had an immediate suc- 
cess, and not only decided his future 
career but long determined the charac- 
ter of his writings. In 1808, assisted by 
his brother Peter, he wrote " Knickerbock- 
er's History of New York," and in 18 10 an 
excellent biography of Campbell, the poet. 
After this, for some time, Irving's attention 
was occupied by mercantile interests, but 
the commercial house in which he was a 
partner failed in 1S17. In 18 14 he was 
editor of the Philadelphia "Analectic Maga- 
zine. " About 1 8 18 appeared his " Sketch- 
Book, " over the nom-dc-pluinc of ' "Geoffrey 
Crayon," which laid the foundation of Ir- 
ving's fortune and permanent fame. This 
was soon followed by the legends of 
"Sleepy Hollow," and " Rip Van Winkle," 
which at once took high rank as literary 
productions, and Irving's reputation was 
firmly established in both the old and new 
worlds. After this the path of Irving was 
smooth, and his subsequent writings ap- 
peared with rapidity, including "Brace- 
bridge Hall," "The Tales of a Traveler,'' 
" History of the Life and Voyages of Chris- 
topher Columbus," "The Conquest of 
Granada," "The Alhambra," " Tour on 
the Prairies," "Astoria," "Adventures of 
Captain Bonneville," "Wolfert's Roost." 
" Mahomet and his Successors," and "Life 
of Washington," besides other works. 

Washington Irving was never married. 



34 



COMPEXDIL'M OF niUGRAPHr 



He resided during the closing years of his 
life at Sunnyside (Tarrj-town) on the Hud- 
son, where he died November 28, 1859. 



CHARLES SUMNER.— Boldly outlined 
on the pages of our historj' stands out 
the rugged figure of Charles Sumner, states- 
man, lawyer and writer. A man of unim- 
peachable integrity, indomitable will and 
with the power of tireless toil, he was a fit 
leader in troublous times. First in rank as 
an anti-slaver}' leader in the halls of con- 
gress, he has stamped his image upon the 
annals of his time. As an orator he took 
front rank and, in wealth of illustration, 
rhetoric and lofty tone his eloquence equals 
anything to be found in historj'. 

Charles Sumr.er was born in Boston. 
Massachusetts, January 6, 181 1, and was 
the son of Charles P. and Relief J. Sumner. 
The family had long been prominent in that 
state. Charles was educated at the Boston 
Public Latin School: entered Harvard Col- 
lege in 1826. and graduated therefrom in 
1S30. In I S3 1 he joined the Harvard Law 
School, then under charge of Judge Story, 
and gave himself up to the study of law 
with enthusiasm. His leisure was devoted 
to contributing to the American Jurist. Ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1834 he was appointed 
reporter to the circuit court by Judge Story. 
He published several works about this time, 
and from 1S35 to 1S37 and again in 1843 
was lecturer in the law school. He had 
planned a lawyers life, but in 1S45 he gave 
his attention to politics, speaking and working 
against the admission of Te.xas to the Union 
and subsequently against the Mexican war. 
In 1848 he was defeated for congress on the 
Free Soil ticket. His stand on the anti- 
slavery question at that time alienated both 
friends and clients, but he never swerved 
from his convictions. In 1 85 1 he was elected 



to the United States senate and took h:? 
seat therein December i of that year. From 
this time his life became the history of the 
anti-slavery cause in congress. In August. 
1852. he began his attacks on slavery by a 
masterly argument for the repeal of the 
fugitive slave law. On May 22, 1S56, Pres- 
ton Brooks, nephew of Senator Butler, of 
South Carolina, made an attack upon Mr. 
Sumner, at his desk in the senate, striking 
him over the head with a heavy cane. The 
attack was quite serious in its effects and 
kept Mr. Sumner absent from his seat in the 
senate for about four j-ears. In 1857. 1S63 
and 1 869 he was re-elected to the office of 
senator, passing some twenty-three years in 
that position, always advocating the rights 
of freedom and equity. He died March ii. 
I8/-4- 

THOMAS JEFFERSON, the third pres- 
ident of the United Stales, was born 
near Charlottesville. Albemarle county. Vir- 
ginia, April 13. 1743. and was the son of 
Peter and Jane (Randolph) Jefferson. He 
received the elements of a good education, 
and in 1760 entered William and Marj' Col- 
lege. After remaining in that institution for 
two years he took up the study of law with 
George Wythe, of Williamsburg, Virginia, 
one of the foremost lawyers of his day, and 
was admitted to practice in 1767. He ob- 
tained a large and profitable practice, which 
he held for eight years. The conflict be- 
tween Great Britain and the Colonies then 
drew him into public life, he having for 
some time given his attention to the study 
of the sources of law, the origin of liberty 
and equal rights. 

Mr. Jefferson was elected to the Virginia 
bouse of burgesses in 1769, and ser^•ed in 
that body several years, a firm supporter of 
liberal measures, and. although a slave- 



COMPEXDILWf OF BIOGRAPHr. 



35 



holder himself, an opponent of slavery, j 
With others, he was a leader among the op- 
position to the king. He took his place as i 
a member of the Continental congress June I 
2 1. 1775, and after serving on several com- 
mittees was appointed to draught a Declara- 
tion of Independence, which he did, some 
corrections being suggested by Dr. Franklin 
and John Adams. This document was pre- 
sented to congress June 28, 1776, and after 
si.\ days' debate was passed and was signed. 
In the following September Mr. Jefferson 
resumed his seat in the Virginia legislature, 
and gave much time to the adapting of laws 
of that state to the new condition of things. 
He drew up the law, the first ever passed by 
a legislature or adopted by a government, 
which secured perfect religious freedom. 
June I, 1779, he succeeded Patrick Henry 
as governor of Virginia, an office which, 
after co-operating with Washington in de- 
fending the country, he resigned two years 
later. One of his own estates was ravaged 
by the British, and his house at Monticello 
was held by Tarleton for several days, and 
Jefferson narrowly escaped capture. After 
the death of his wife, in 17S2, he accepted 
the position of plenipotentiary to France, 
which he had declined in 1776. Before 
leaving he served a short time in congress 
at Annapolis, and succeeded in carrying a 
bill for establishing our present decimal sys- 
tem of currency, one of his most useful pub- 
lic services. He remained in an official ca- 
pacity until October, 1789, and was a most 
active and vigilant minister. Besides the 
onerous duties of his office, during this time, 
he published "Notes on \'irginia," sent to 
the United States seeds, shrubs and plants, 
forwarded literary and scientific news and 
gave useful advice to some of the leaders of 
the French Revolution. 

Mr. Jefferson landed in Virginia Novem- 



ber 18, 1789, having obtained a leave of 
absence from his post, and shortly after ac- 
cepted Washington's offer of the portfolio 
of the department of sta'te in his cabinet. 
He entered upon the duties of his office in 
March, 1791, and held it until January i, 
1794, when he tendered his resignation. 
About this time he and Alexander Hamilton 
became decided and aggressive political op- 
ponents, Jefferson being in warm sympathy 
with the people in the French revolation 
and strongly democratic in his feelings, 
while Hamilton took the opposite side. In 
1796 Jefferson was elected vice-president of 
the United States. In iSoo he was elected 
to the presidency and was inaugurated 
March 4. 1 801. During his administration, 
which lasted for eight years, he having been 
re-elected in 1804, he waged a successful 
war against the Tripolitan pirates; purchased 
Louisiana of Napoleon; reduced the public 
debt, and was the originator of many wise 
measures. Declining a nomination for a 
third term he returned to Monticello, where 
he died July 4. 1826, but a few hours before 
the death of his friend, John Adams. 

Mr. Jefferson was married January i, 
1772, to Mrs. Martha Skelton. a young, 
beautiful, and wealthy widow, who died 
September 6, 1782, leaving three children, 
three more having died previous to her 
demise. 

CORNELIUS VANDERBILT, known as 
"Commodore" \'anderbilt, was the 
founder of what constitutes the present im- 
mense fortune of the Vanderbilt family. He 
was born May 27, 1794. at Port Richmond, 
Staten Island. Richmond county, Nev.' 
York, and we find him at sixteen years run- 
ning a small vessel between his home and 
New York City. The fortifications of Sta- 
ten and Long Islands were just in course of 



30 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



construction, and he carried the laborers 
from New York to the fortifications in his 
"perianger, " as it was called, in the day, 
and at night carried supplies to the fort on 
the Hudson. Later he removed to New 
York, where he added to his little fleet. At 
the age of twenty- three he was free from 
debt and was worth $9,000, and in 181 7, 
with a partner he built the first steamboat 
that was run between New York and New 
Brunswick, New Jersey, and became her 
captain at a salary of $1,000 a year. The 
ne.xt year he took command of a larger and 
better boat and by 1824 he was in complete 
control of the Gibbon's Line, as it was 
called, which he had brought up to a point 
where it paid $40,000 a year. Commodore 
V'anderbilt acquired the ferry between New 
York and Elizabethport, New Jersey, on a 
fourteen years' lease and conducted this on 
a paying basis. He severed his connections 
with Gibbons in 1S29 and engaged in 
business alone and for twenty years he was 
the leading steamboat man in the country, 
building and operating steamboats on the 
Hudson River, Long Island Sound, on the 
Delaware River and the route to Boston, 
and he had the monopoly of trade on these 
routes. In 1850 he determined to broaden 
his field of operation and accordingly built 
the steamship Prometheus and sailed for 
the Isthmus of Darien, where he desired to 
make a personal investigation of the pros- 
pects of the American Atlantic and Pacific 
Ship Canal Company, in which he had pur- 
chased a co::trolling interest. Commodore 
Vanderbilt planned, as a result of this visit, 
a transit route from Greytown on the At- 
lantic coast to San Juan del Sud on the Pa- 
cific coast, which was a saving of 700 miles 
over the old route. In 1851 he placed three 
steamers on the Atlantic side and four on 
the Pacific side to accommodate the enor- 



mous traffic occasioned by the discovery of 
gold in California. The following year 
three more vessels were added to his fleet 
and a branch line established from New 
Orleans to Greytown. In 1853 the Com- 
modore sold out hisNicarauguaTransit Com- 
pany, which had netted him $1,000,000 
and built the renowned steam yacht, the 
"North Star." He continued in the ship- 
ping business nine years longer and accu- 
mulated some $10,000,000. In 1861 he 
presented to the government his magnifi- 
cent steamer " Vanderbilt, " which had cost 
him $800,000 and for which he received the 
thanks of congress. In 1844 he became 
interested in the railroad business which he 
followed in later years and became one of 
the greatest railroad magnates of his time. 
He founded the Vanderbilt University at a 
cost of $1,000,000. He died January 4, 
1877, leaving a fortune estimated at over 
$100,000,000 to his children. 



DANIEL BOONE was one of the most 
famous of the many American scouts, 
pioneers and hunters which the early settle- 
ment of the western states brought into 
prominence. Daniel Boone was born Feb- 
ruary II, 1735, in Bucks county, Pennsyl- 
vania, but while yet a young man removed 
to North Carolina, where he was married. 
In 1769, with five companions, he pene- 
trated into the forests and wilds of Kentucky 
• — then uninhabited by white men. He had 
frequent conflicts with the Indians and was 
captured by them but escaped and continued 
to hunt in and e.xplore that region for over 
a year, when, in 1771, he returned to his 
home. In the summer of 1773, he removed 
with his own and five other families into 
what was then the wilderness of Kentucky, 
and to defend his colony against the savages, 
he built, in 1775, a fort at Boonesborough, 



COMJ'EMJJLM OF BJOGRAi'Hr. 



87 



on the Kentucky river. This tort was at- 
tacked by the Indians several times in 1777, 
but they were repulsed. The following 
year, however, Boone was surprised and 
captured by them. They took him to De- 
troit and treated him with leniency, but he 
soon escaped and returned to his fort which 
he defended with success against four hun- 
dred and fifty Indians in August, 1778. His 
son, Enoch Boone, was the first white male 
child born in the state of Kentucky. In 
1795 Daniel Boone removed with his family 
to Missouri, locating about forty-five miles 
west of the present site of St. Louis, where 
he found fresh fields for his favorita pursuits 
— adventure, hunting, and pioneer life. His 
death occurred September 20, 1820. 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFEL- 
LOW, said to have been America's 
greatest "poet of the people," was born at 
Portland, Maine, February 27, 1807. He 
entered Bowdoin College at the age of four- 
teen, and graduated in 1S25. During his 
college days he distinguished himself in mod- 
ern languages, and wrote several short 
poems, one of the best known of which was 
the " Hymn of the Moravian Nivis." After 
his graduation he entered the law office of 
his father, but the following year was offered 
the professorship of modern languages at 
Bowdoin, with the privilege of three years 
study in Europe to perfect himself in French, 
Spanish, Italian and German. After the 
three years were passed he returned to the 
United States and entered upon his profes- 
sorship in 1829. His first volume was a 
small essay on the "Moral and Devotional 
Poetry of Spain" in 1S33. In 1S35 he pub- 
lished some prose sketches of travel under 
iii'2 title o!" Outre Mer, a Pilgrimage be- 
yond the Sea." In 1835 he was elected to 
the chair of modern languages and literature 



at Harvard University and spent a year in 
Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, culti- 
vating a knowledge of early Scandinavian 
literature and entered upon his professor- 
ship in 1836. Mr. Longfellow published in 
1 8 39 " Hyperion, a Romance," and "Voices 
of the Night, " and his first volume of original 
verse comprising the selected poems of 
twenty years work, procured him immediate 
recognition as a poet. " Ballads and other 
poems" appeared in 1842, the "Spanish 
Student " a drama in three acts, in 1843, 
"The Belfry of Bruges " in 1846, "Evan- 
geline, a Tale of Acadia," in 1847, which 
was considered his master piece. In 1845 
he published a large volume of the "Poets 
and Poetry of Europe," 1849 " Kavanagh, 
a Tale," "The Seaside and Fireside" m 
1850, "The Golden Legend " in 1851, "The 
Song of Hiawatha " in 1855, " The Court- 
ship of Miles Standish " in 1858, " Tales of 
a Wayside Inn " in 1863; " Flower de Luce' 
in 186$;" "New England Tragedies" in 
1869; "The Divine Tragedy" in 1871; 
"Three Books of Song" in 1872; "The 
Hanging of the Crane " in 1874. He also 
published a masterly translation of Dante 
in iS67-70and the " Morituri Salutamus," 
a poem read at the fiftieth anniversary of 
his class at Bowdoin College. Prof. Long- 
fellow resigned his chair at Harvard Univer- 
sity in 1854, but continued to reside at Cam- 
bridge. Some of his poetical works have 
been translated into many languages, and 
their popularity rivals that of the best mod- 
ern English poetry. He died March 24, 
1882, but has left an imperishable fame as 
one of the foremost of American poets. 



PETER COOPER was in three partic- 
ulars — as a capitalist and manufacturer, 
as an inventor, and as a philanthropist — 
connected intimately with some of the most 



88 



COMPEXD/r.U OF BlOGRArnr. 



jmoortant and useful accessions to the in- 
dustrial arts of America, its progress in in- 
vention and the promotion of educational 
and benevolent institutions intended (or the 
benefit of people at large. He was born 
in New York city, February I2, 1791. His 
jife was one of labor and struggle, as it was 
with most of America's successful men. In 
early boj hood he commenced to help his 
»ather as a manufacturer of hats. He at- 
tended school only for half of each day for 
a single year, and beyond this his acquisi- 
tions were all his own. When seventeen 
vears old he was placed with John Wood- 
ward to learn the trade of coach-making and 
served his apprenticeship so satisfactorily 
that his master oP-;red to set him up in busi- 
ness, but this he declined because of the 
debt and obligation it would involve. 

The foundation of Mr. Cooper's fortune 
was laid in the invention of an improvement 
in machines for shearing cloth. This was 
largely called into use during the war of 
1S12 with England when all importations 
of cloth from that country were stopped. 
The machines lost their value, however, on 
the declaration of peace. Mr. Cooper then 
turned his shop into the manufacture of 
cabinet ware. He afterwards went into the 
grocery business in New York and finally he 
engaged in the manufacture of glue and isin- 
glass which he carried on for more than 
fifty years. In 1830 he erected iron works 
in Canton, near Baltimore. Subsequenily 
he erected a roiling and a wire mill in the 
cit\- of New York, in which he first success- 
fully applied anthracite to the puddling of 
iron. In these works, he was the first to 
roll wrought-iron beams for fire-proof build- 
ings. These works grew to be very e.\ten- 
sive. incmdinir mines, blast furnaces, etc. 
Wnib in Haltimore Mr. Cooper built in 
1S30. after his own desi<:ns. the first ioco- 1 



motive engine ever constructed on this con- 
tinent and it was successfully operated on 
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He also 
took a great interest and invested large cap- 
ital in thesxtensionof the electric telegraph, 
also in the laying of the first Atlantic cable; 
besides interesting himself largely in the 
New York state canals. But the most 
cherished object of Mr. Cooper's life was 
the establishment of an institution for the 
instruction of the industrial classes, which 
he carried out on a magnificent scale in New 
York city, where the "Cooper Union" 
ranks among the most important institu- 
tions. 

In May, 1S76, the Independent party 
nominated Mr. Cooper for president of the 
United States, and at the election following 
he received nearly 100,000 votes. His 
death occurred April 4. 1883. 



GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE, 
one of the most conspicuous Confeder- 
ate generals during the Civil war, and one 
of the ablest military commanders of mod- 
ern times, was born at Stratford House, 
Westmoreland county, N'irginia, January 19, 
1807. In 1 82 5 he entered the West Point 
academy and was graduated second in his 
class in 1829, and attached to the army as 
second lieutenant of engineers. For a 
number of years he was thus engaged in en- 
gineering work, aiding in establishing the 
boundary line between Ohio and Michigan, 
and superintended various river and harbor 
improvements, becoming captain of engi- 
neers in 1838. He first saw field service in 
the Mexican war, and under General Scott 
performed valuable and eflicient service. 
In that brilliant campaign he was conspicu- 
ous for professional ability as well as gallant 
and meritorious conduct, winning in quick 
succession rhe brevets of major, lieutenant- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAl'Jir. 



&'i 



colonel, and colonel for his part in the bat- 
tles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco, 
Chapultepec, and in the capture of the city 
Mexico. At the close of that war he re- 
sumed his engineering work in connection 
with defences along the Atlantic coast, and 
from 1S52 to 1855 was superintendent of 
the Military Academy, a position which he 
gave up to become lieutenant-colonel of the 
Second Cavalry. For several years there- 
after he served on the Texas border, but 
happening to be near \\'ashington at the 
time of John Brown's raid, October 17 to 
25, 1859, Colonel Lee was placed in com- 
mand of the Federal forces employed in its 
repression. He soon returned to his regi- 
ment in Texas where he remained the 
greater part of i860, and March 16, 1861, 
became colonel of his regiment by regular 
promotion. Three weeks later, April 25, he 
resigned upon the secession of Virginia, 
went at once to Richmond and tendered his 
services to the governor of that state, being 
by acclamation appointed commander-in- 
chief of its military and naval forces, with 
the rank of major-general. 

He at once set to work to organize and 
develop the defensive resources of his state 
and within a month directed the occupation 
in force of Manassas Junction. Meanwhile 
Virginia having entered the confederacy and 
Richmond become the capitol, Lee became 
one of the foremost of its military officers 
and was closely connected with Jefferson 
Davis in planning the moves of that tragic 
time. Lee participated in many of the 
hardest fought battles of the war among 
which were Fair Oaks, White Lake Swamps, 
Cold Harbor, and the Chickahominy, Ma- 
nassas, Cedar Run, Antietam, Fredericks- 
burg, Chancellorsville, Malvern Hill, Get- 
tysburg, the battles of the Wilderness cam- 
paign, all the campaigns about Richmond, 



Petersburg, Five Forks, and others. Lee's 
surrender at Appomato.x brought the war to 
a close. It is said of General Lee tliat but 
few commanders in history have been so 
quick to detect the purposes of an opponent 
or so quick to act upon it. Never surpassed, 
if ever equaled, in the art of winning the 
passionate, personal love and admiration of 
his troops, he acquired and held an influ- 
ence over his army to the very last, founded 
upon a supreme trust in his judgment, pre- 
science and skill, coupled with his cool, 
stable, equable courage. A great writer has 
said of him: ".As regards the proper meas- 
ure of General Lee's rank among the sol- 
diers of history, seeing what he wrought 
with such resources as he had, under all the 
disadvantages that ever attended his oper- 
ations, it is impossible to measure what he 
might have achieved in campaigns and bat- 
tles with resources at his own disposition 
equal to those against which he invariably 
contended." 

Left at the close of the war without es- 
tate or profession, he accepted the presi- 
dency of Washington College at Lexington, 
Virginia, where he died October 12, 1870. 



JOHN JAY, first chief-justice of the 
United States, was born in New York, 
December 12, 1745. He took up the study 
of law, graduated from King's College 
(Columbia College), and was admitted to 
the bar in 1768. He was chosen a member 
of the committee of New York citizens to 
protest against the enforcement by the 
British government of the Boston Port Bill, 
was elected to the Continental congress 
which met in 1774, and was author of the 
addresses to the people of Great Britian and 
of Canada adopted by that and the suc- 
ceeding congress. He was chosen to the 
provincial assembly of his own state, and 



w 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr 



resigned from the Continental congress to 
serve in that body, wrote most of its public 
papers, including the constitution of the new 
state, and was then made chief-justice. He 
was again chosen as a member of the Con- 
tinental congress in 1778, and became presi- 
dent of that body. He was sent to S{!ain 
as minister in 1780, and his services there 
resulted in substantial and moral aid for the 
struggling colonists. Jay, Franklin, and 
Adams negotiated the treaty of peace with 
Great Britain in 1782, and Jay was ap- 
pointed secretary of foreign affairs in 1784, 
and held the position until the adoption of 
the Federal constitution. During this time 
he had contributed strong articles to the 
"Federalist" in favor of the adoption of 
the constitution, and was largely instru- 
mental in securing the ratification of that 
instrument by his state. He was appointed 
by Washington as first chief-justice of the 
United States in 1789. In this high capac- 
ity the great interstate and international 
questions that arose for immediate settle- 
ment came before him for treatment. 

In 1794, at a time when the people in 
gratitude for the aid that France had ex- 
tended to us, were clamoring for the privilege 
of going to the aid of that nation in her 
struggle with Great Britain and her own op- 
pressors, John Jay was sent to England as 
special envoy to negotiate a treaty with 
that power. The instrument known as 
"Jay's Treaty " was the result, and while 
in many of its features it favored our nation, 
yet the neutrality clause in it so angered the 
masses that it was denounced throughout 
the entire country, and John Jay was burned 
in effigy in the city of New York. The 
treaty was finally ratified by Washington, 
and approved, in August, 1795. Having 
been elected governor of his state for three 
consecutive terms, he then retired from 



active life, declining an appointment as 
chief-justice of the supreme court, made by 
John Adams and confirmed by the senate. 
He died in New York in 1S29. 



PHILLIP HENRY SHERIDAN was 
one of the greatest American cavalry 
generals. He was born March 6, 1831, at 
Somerset, Perry county, Ohio, and was ap- 
pointed to the United States Military Acad- 
einy at West Point, from which he graduat- 
ed and was assigned to the First Infantry as 
brevet second lieutenant July i, 1853. 
After serving in Texas, on the Pacific coast, 
in Washington and Oregon territories until 
the fall of 1 86 1, he was recalled to the 
states and assigned to the army of south- 
west Missouri as chief quartermaster from 
the duties of which he was soon relieved. 
After the battle of Pea Ridge, he was quar- 
termaster in the Corinth campaign, and on 
May 25 he was appointed colonel of the 
Second Michigan Cavalry. On July i, in 
command of a cavalry brigade, he defeated 
a superior force of the enemy and was com- 
missioned brigadier-general of volunteers. 
General Sheridan was then transferred to 
the army of the Ohio, and commanded a 
division in the battle of Perrysville and also 
did good service at the battle of Murfrees- 
boro, where he was commissioned major- 
general of volunteers. He fought with 
great gallantry at Chickamauga, after which 
Rosecrans was succeeded by General Grant, 
under whom Sheridan fought the battle of 
Chattanooga and won additional renown. 
Upon the promotion of Grant to lieutenant- 
general, he applied for the transfer of Gen- 
eral Sheridan to the east, and appointed 
him chief of cavalry in the army of the 
Potomac. During the campaign of 1864 
the cavalry covered the front and flanks oi 
the infar.try until May 8, when it was wii-.-» 



coMPExnn.v of inoc,R.\riir. 



■ii 



drawn and General Sheridan started on a 
raid against the Confederate lines of com- 
munication with Richmond and on May 25 
he rejoined the armj, having destroj'ed con- 
siderable of tile confederate stores and de- 
feated their cavalry under General Stuart at 
Yellow Tavern. The outer line of defences 
around Richmond were taken, but the sec- 
ond line was too strong to be taken by as- 
sault, and accordingly Sheridan crossed the 
Chickahominy at Meadow Bridge, reaching 
James River May 14, and ther.ce by White 
House and Hanover Court House back to 
ihe army. The cavalry occupied Cold 
Harbor May 31, which they held until the 
arrival of the infantry. On General Sheri- 
dan's next raid he routed Wade Hampton's 
cavalry, and August 7 was assigned to the 
command of the Middle Military division, 
and during the campaign of the Shenan- 
doah Valley he performed the unheard of 
feat of " destroying an entire army." He 
was appointed brigadier-general of the reg- 
ular army and for his victory at Cedar Creek 
he was promoted to the rank of major-gen- 
eral. General Sheridan started out Febru- 
ary 27, 1865, with ten thousand cavalry 
and destroyed the Virginia Central Railroad 
and the James River Canal and joined the 
army again at Petersburg March 27. He 
commanded at the battle of Five Forks, the 
decisive victory which compelled Lee to 
evacuate Petersburg. On April 9, Lee tried 
to break through Sheridan's dismounted 
command but when the General drew aside 
his cavalry and disclosed the deep lines of 
infantry the attempt was abandoned. Gen- 
eral Sheridan mounted his men and was about 
to charge when a white flag was flown at the 
head of Lee's column which betokened the 
surrender of the army. After the war Gen- 
eral Sheridan had command of the army of 
the southwest, of the euif and the depart- 



ment of Missouri until he was appointed 
lieutenant-general and assigned to the di- 
vision of Missouri with headquarters at Chi- 
cago, and assumed supreme command of 
the army November i, 1883, which post he 
held until his death, Augusts, '888. 



PHINEAS T. BARNUM. the greatest 
showman the world has ever seen, was 
born at Danbury, Connecticut, July 5, 18 10. 
At the age of eighteen j-ears he began busi- 
ness on his own account. He opened a re- 
tail fruit and confectionery house, including 
a barrel of ale, in one part of an old car- 
riage house. He spent fifty dollars in fitting 
up the store and the stock cost him seventy 
dollars. Three years later he put in a full 
stock, such as is generally carried in a 
country store, and the same year he started 
a Democratic newspaper, known as the 
"Herald of Freedom." He soon found 
himself in jail under a sixty days' sentence 
for libel. During the winter of 1834-5 ^*^ 
went to New York and began soliciting busi- 
ness for several Chatham street houses. In 

1835 he embarked in the show business at 
Niblo's Garden, having purchased the cele- 
brated " Joice Heth" for one thousand dol- 
lars. He afterward engaged the celebrated 
athlete, Sig. \'ivalia, and Barnum made his 
" first appearance on any stage," acting as a 
"super" to Sig. \'ivalia on his opening 
night. He became ticket seller, secretary 
and treasurer of Aaron Turner's circus in 

1836 and traveled with it about the country. 
His next venture was the purchase of a 
steamboat on the Mississippi, and engaged 
a theatrical company to show in the princi- 
pal towns along that river. In 1840 he 
opened \'aux Hail Garden, New York, with 
variety performances, and introduced the 
celebrated jig dancer, John Diamond, to the 
public. The next year he quit the show 



42 



coMPEXDiCM or nioc.r.APiir. 



business and settled down in New York as 
agent of Sear's Pictorial Illustration of the 
Bible, but a few months later again leased 
Vaux Hall. In September of the same year 
he again left the business, and became 
"puff" writer for the Bowery Amphitheater. 
In December he bought the Scudder Museum, 
and a year later introduced the celebrated 
Tom Thumb to the world, taking him to 
England in i S44, and remaining there three 
years. He then returned to New York, and 
in 1849, through James Hall Wilson, he en- 
gaged the "Swedish Nightingale," Jenny 
Lind, to come to this country and make a 
tour under his tnanagement. He also had 
sent the Swiss Bell Ringers to America in 
1844. He became owner of the Baltimore 
Museum and the Lyceum and Museum at 
Philadelphia. In 1850 he brought a dozen 
elephants from Ceylon to make a tour of this 
country, and in 1851 sent the " Bateman 
Children" to London. During 1S51 and 
1852 he traveled as a temperance lecturer, 
and became president of a bank at Pequon- 
nock, Connecticut. In 1852 he started a 
weekly pictorial paper known as the " Illus- 
trated News." In 18O5 his Museum was 
destroyed by fire, and he immediately leased 
the Winter Garden Theatre, where he played 
his company until he opened his own 
Museum. This was destroyed by fire in 
1868, and he then purchased an interest in 
the George Wood Museum. 

After dipping into politics to some ex- 
tent, he began his career as a really great 
showman in 1S71. Three years later he 
erected an immense circular building in New 
York, in which he produced his panoramas. 
He has frequently appeared as a lecturer, 
some times on temperance, and some times 
on other topics, among which were "Hum- 
bugs of the World." "Struggles and 
Triumphs," etc. He was owner of the im- 



mense menagerie and circus known as the 
"Greatest Show on Earth," and his fame 
extended throughout Europe and America. 
He died in 1891. 



JAMES MADISON, the fourth president 
of the United States, 1809-17, was 
born at Port Conway, Prince George coun- 
ty, Virginia, March 16, 1751. He was the 
son of a wealthy planter, who lived on a fine 
estate called " Montpelier, " which was but 
twenty-five miles from Monticello, the home 
of Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Madison was the 
eldest of a family of seven children, all of 
whom attained maturity. He received his 
early education at home under a private 
tutor, and consecrated himself with unusual 
vigor to study. \t a very early age he was 
a proficient scholar in Latin, Greek, French 
and Spanish, and in 1769 he entered Prince- 
ton College, New Jersey. He graduated in 
1 77 1, but remained for several months aftei 
his graduation to pursue a course of study 
under the guidance of Dr. Witherspoon. 
He permanently injured his health at this 
time and returned to Virginia in 1772, and 
for two years he was immersed in the study 
of law, and at the same time made extend- 
ed researches in theology, general literature, 
and philosophical studies. He then directed 
his full attention to the impending struggle 
of the colonies for independence, and also 
took a prominent part in the religious con- 
troversy at that time regarding so called 
persecution of other religious denominations 
by the Church of England. Mr. Madison 
was elected to the Virginia assembly in 1776 
and in November, 1777, he was chosen 
a member of the council of state. He took 
his seat in the continental congress in 
March, 1780. He was made chairman of 
the committee on foreign relations, and 
drafted an able memoranda for the use of 



COMPEXDIL'M OF BIOGRArin: 



43 



the American ministers to the French and 
Spanish governments, that established the 
claims of the republic to the territories be- 
tween the Alleghany Mountains and the 
Mississippi River. He acted as chairman of 
the ways and means committee in 1783 and 
as a member of the Virginia legislature in 
1784-86 he rendered important services to 
the state. Mr. Madison represented Vir- 
giana in the national constitutional conven- 
tion at Philadelphia in 1787, and was one of 
the chief framers of the constitution. He 
was a member of the first four congresses, 
1789-97, and gradually became identified 
with the anti-federalist or republican party 
of which he eventually became the leader. 
He remained in private life during the ad- 
ministration of John Adams, and was secre- 
tary of state under President Jefferson. Mr. 
Madison administered the affairs of that 
post with such great ability that he was the 
natural successor of the chief magistrate 
and was chosen president by an electoral 
vote of 122 to 53. He was inaugurated 
March 4, 1S09. at that critical period in our 
history when the feelings of the people were 
embittered with those of England, and his 
first term was passed in diplomatic quarrels, 
which finally resulted in the declaration of 
war, June 18, 18 12. In the autumn of that 
year President Madison was re-elected by a 
vote of 128 to 89, and conducted the war 
for three years with varying success and 
defeat in Canada, by glorious victories at 
sea, and by the battle of New Orleans that 
was fought after the treaty of peace had 
been signed at Ghent, December 24, 1814. 
During this war the national capitol at 
Washington w^as burned, and many valuable 
papers were destroyed, but the declaration 
of independence was saved to the country 
by the bravery and courage of Mr. Madi- 
son's illustrious wife. A commercial treaty 



was negotiated with Great Britain in 181 5, 
and in April, 1S16, a national bank was in- 
corporated by congress. Mr. Madison was 
succeeded, March4, 1S17, by James Monroe, 
and retired into private life on his estate at 
Montpelier, where he died June 28, 1836. 



FREDERICK DOUGLASS, a noted 
American character, was a protege of 
the great abolitionist, William Lloyd Garri- 
son, by whom he was aided in gaining his 
education. Mr. Douglass was born in Tuck- 
ahoe county, Maryland, in February, 181 7, 
his mother being a ne<jro woman and his 
father a white man. He was born in slav- 
ery and belonged to a man by the name of 
Lloyd, under which name he went until he 
ran away from his master and changed it to 
Douglass. At the age of ten years he was 
sent to Baltimore where he learned to read 
and write, and later his owner allowed him 
to hire out his own time for three dollars a 
week in a shipyard. In September, 1838, 
he fled from Baltimore and made his way to 
New York, and from thence went to New 
Bedford, Massachusetts. Here he was mar- 
ried and supported himself and family by 
working at the wharves and in various work- 
shops. In the summer of 1841 he attended 
an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket, 
and made a speech which was so well re- 
ceived that he was offered the agency of the 
Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society. In this 
capacity he traveled through the New En- 
gland states, and about the same time he 
published his first book called "Narrative 
of my Experience in Slavery." Mr. Doug- 
lass went to England in 1845 and lectured 
on slavery to large and enthusiastic audi- 
ences in all the large towns of the country, 
and his friends made up a purse of seven 
hundred and fifty dollars and purchased his 
freedom in due form of law. 



44 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Mr. Douglass applied himself to the de- 
livery of lyceum lectures after the abolition 
of slavery, and in 1870 he became the editor 
of the " New National Era " in Washington. 
In 1 87 1 he was appointed assistant secretary 
of the commission to San Domingo and on 
his return he was appointed one of the ter- 
ritorial council for the District of Colorado 
by President Grant. He was elected presi- 
dential elector-at-large for the state of New 
York and was appointed to carry the elect- 
oral vote to Washington. He was also 
United States marshal for the District of 
Columbia in 1876, and latei was recorder 
of deeds for the same, from which position 
he was removed b}- President Cleveland in 
1886. In the fall of that year he visited 
England to inform the friends that he had 
made while there, of the progress of the 
colored race in America, and on his return 
he was appointed minister to Hayti, by 
President Harrison in 1889. His career as 
a benefactor of his race was closed by his 
death in February, 1895, near Washington. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.— The 
ear for rhythm and the talent for 
graceful expression are the gifts of nature, 
and they were plentifully endowed on the 
above named poet. The principal charac- 
teristic of his poetry is the thoughtfulness 
and intellectual process by which his ideas 
ripened in his mind, as all his poems are 
bright, clear and sweet. Mr. Bryant was 
born November 3. 1 794, at Cummington, 
Hampshire county, Massachusetts, and was 
educated at Williams College, from which 
he graduated, having entered it in iSio. 
He took up the study of law, and in 1815 
was admitted to the bar, but after practicing 
successfully for ten years at Piainfield and 
Great Barrington, he removed to New York 
in 1S25. The following year he became 



the editor of the "Evening Post," which 
he edited until his death, and under his di- 
rection this paper maintained, through a 
long series of years, a high standing by the 
boldness of its protests against slavery be- 
fore the war, by its vigorous support of the 
government during the war, and by the 
fidelity and ability of its advocacy of the 
Democratic freedom in trade. Mr. Brj- 
ant visited Europe in 1834, 1845, 1849 and 
1857, and presented to the literary world 
the fruit of his travels in the series of "Let- 
ters of a Traveler," and "Letters from 
Spain and Other Countries." In the world 
of literature he is known chiefly as a poet, 
and here Mr. Bryant's name is illustrious, 
both at home and abroad. He contributed 
verses to the "Country Gazette " before he 
was ten years of age, and at the age of nine- 
teen he wrote " Thanatopsis," the most im- 
pressive and svidely known of his poems. 
The later outgrowth of his genius was his 
translation of Homer's "Iliad" in 1870 
and the "Odyssey" in 1871. He also 
made several speeches and addresses which 
have been collected in a comprehensive vol- 
ume called " Orations and Addresses." He 
was honored in many ways by his fellow 
citizens, who delighted to pay tributes of 
respect to his literarj' eminence, the breadth 
of his public spirit, the faithfulness of his 
service, and the worth of his private char- 
acter. Mr. Bryant died in New York City 
June 12, 1S78. 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD, the 
secretary of state during one of the 
most critical times in the history of our 
country, and the right hand man of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, ranks among the greatest 
statesmen America has produced. Mr. 
Sfnvard was born May 16, 1 801, at Florida, 
Orange county, New York, and with such 



CO.UPE.V/^/r.V OF" BIOGRAPHr. 



facilities as the place afforded he fitted him- 
self for a college course. He attended 
Union College at Schenectadj', New York, 
at the age of fifteen, and took his degree in 
the regular course, with signs of promise in 
1820, after which he diligently addressed 
himself to the study of law under competent 
instructors, and started in the practice of 
his profession in 1S23. 

Mr. Seward entered the political arena 
and in 1S2S we find him presiding over a 
convention i« New York, its purpose being 
the nomination of John Quincy Adams for a 
second term. He was married in 1824 and 
in 1S30 was elected to the state senate. 
From 1838 to 1842 he was governor of the 
state of New York. Mr. Seward's ne.\t im- 
portant position was that of United States 
senator from New York. 

\\'. H. Seward was chosen by President 
Lincoln to fill the important office of the 
secretary of state, and by his firnmess and 
diplomacy in the face of difficulties, he aided 
in piloting the Union through that period of 
strife, and won an everlasting fame. This 
great statesman died at Auburn, New York, 
October 10, 1872, in the seventy-second 
year of his eventful life. 



J 



OSEPH JEFFERSON, a name as dear 
as it is familiar tc the theater-going 
world in America, suggests first of all a fun- 
loving, drink-ioving, mellow voiced, good- 
natured Dutchman, and the name of "Rip 
Van Winkie " su'ggests the pleasant features 
of Joe Jefferson, so intimately are plaj- and 
player associated in the minds of those who 
have had the good fortune to shed tears of 
laughter and sympathy as a tribute to the 
greatness of his art. Joseph Jefferson was 
born in Philadelphia, February 20, 1S29. 
His genius was an inheritance, if there be 

such, as his great-grandfather, Thomas 
3 



Jefferson, was a manager and actor in Eng 
land. His grandfather, Joseph Jefferson, 
was the most popular comedian of the New 
York stage in his time, and his father, Jos- 
eph Jefferson, the second, was a good actor 
also, but the third Joseph Jefferson out- 
shone them all. 

At the age of three years Joseph Jeffer- 
son came on the stage as the child in "Pi- 
zarro," and his training was upon the stage 
from childhood. Later on he lived and 
acted in Chicago, Mobile, and Texas. After 
repeated misfortunes he returned to New 
Orleans from Te.\as, and his brother-in-law, 
Charles Burke, gave him money to reach 
Philadelphia, where he joined the Burton 
theater company. Here his genius soon as- 
serted itself, and his future became promis- 
ing and brilliant. His engagements through- 
out the United States and Australia were 
generally successful, and when he went to 
England in 1865 Mr. Boucicault consented 
to make some important changes in his 
dramatization of Irving's storj- of Rip \'an 
Winkle, and Mr. Jefferson at once placed 
it in the front rank as a comedj\ He made 
a fortune out of it, and played nothing else 
for many years. In later years, however, 
Mr. Jefferson acquitted himself of the charge 
of being a one-part actor, and the parts of 
•'Bob Acres," "Caleb Plummer" and 
"Golightly " all testify to the versatility of 
his genius. 

GEORGE BRINTON McCLELLAN, 
a noted American general, was born 
in Philadelphia, December 3, 1S26. He 
graduated from the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, and in 1846 from West Point, and 
was breveted second lieutenant of engineers. 
He was with Scott in the Mexican war, 
taking part in all the engagements from 
\'era Cruz to the final capture of the Mexi- 



48 



COMPEXDIL'M OF BIOGRAPHY. 



can capital, and was breveted first lieuten- 
ant and captain for gallantry displayed on 
various occasions. In 1857 he resigned his 
commission and accepted the position of 
chief engineer in the construction of the 
Illinois Central Railroad, and became presi- 
dent of the St. Louis & Cincinnati Railroad 
Company. He was commissioned major- 
general by the state of Ohio in 1861, 
placed in command of the department of 
the Ohio, and organized the first volunteers 
called for from that state. In May he was 
appointed major-general in the United 
States army, and ordered to disperse the 
confederates overrunning West Virginia. 
He accomplished this task promptly, and 
received the thanks of congress. After the 
first disaster at Bull Run he was placed 
in command of the department of Wash- 
ington, and a few weeks later of the 
Army of the Potomac. Upon retirement 
of General Scott the command of the en- 
tire United States army devolved upon Mc- 
Clellan, but he was relieved of it within a 
few months. In March, 1862, after elabor- 
ate preparation, he moved upon Manassas, 
only to find it deserted by the Confederate 
army, which had been withdrawn to im- 
pregnable defenses prepared nearer Rich- 
mond. He then embarked his armies for 
Fortress Monroe and after a long delay at 
Yorktown, began the disastrous Peninsular 
campaign, which resulted in the Army of the 
Potomac being cooped up on the James 
River below Richmond. His forces were 
then called to the support of General Pope, 
near Washington, and he was left without an 
army. After Pope's defeat McClellan was 
placed in command of the troops for the de- 
fense of the capital, and after a thorough or- 
ganization he followed Lee into Maryland 
and the battles of Antietam and South Moun- 
tain ensued. The delay which followed 



I caused general dissatisfaction, and he was re- 
lieved of his command. and retired from active 
service. 

In 1864 McClellan was nominated for 
the presidency by the Democrats, and over- 
whelmingly defeated by Lincoln, three 
states only casting their electoral votes for 
McClellan. On election day he resigned 
his commission and a few months later went 
to Europe where he spent several years. 
He wrote a number of military text- books 
and reports. His deith occurred October 
2^. 1885. 

SAMUEL J. TILDEN.— Among the great 
statesmen whose names adorn the pages 
of American history may be found that of 
the subject of this sketch. Known as a 
lawyer of highest ability, his greatest claim 
to immortality will ever lie in his successful 
battle against the corrupt rings of his native 
state and the elevation of the standard of 
official life. 

Samuel J. Tilden was born in New Leb- 
anon, New York. February 9, 1S14. He 
pursued his academic studies at Yale Col- 
lege and the University of New York, tak- 
ing the course of law at the latter. He 
was admitted to the bar in 1841. His rare 
ability as a thinker and writer upon public 
topics attracted the attention of President 
Van Buren, of whose policy and adminis- 
tration he became an active and efficient 
champion. He made for himself a high 
place in his profession and amassed quite a 
fortune as the result of his industry and 
judgment. During the days of his greatest 
professional labor he was ever one of the 
leaders and trusted counsellors of the Demo- 
cratic party. He was a member of the 
conventions to revise the state constitution, 
both in 1S46 and 1867, and served two 
terms in the lower branch of the state leg- 



COA//'E\/)/( M OF li/OG/^A /'//)-. 



40 



iilature. He was one of the controlling 
spirits in the overthrow of the notorious 
"Tweed rin;,' " and the reformation of the 
l^overnment of the city of New York. In 
I S74 he was elected governor of the state 
of New York. While in this position he 
F.ssailed corruption in high places, success- 
fully battling with the iniquitous "canal 
ring " and crushed its sway over all depart- 
ments of the government. Recognizing his 
character and e.\ecuti\ e ability Mr. Tilden 
was nominated for president by the na- 
tional Democratic convention in 1S76. At 
the election he received a much larger popu- 
lar vote than his opponent, and 1S4 uncon- 
tested electoral votes. There being some 
electoral votes contested, a commission ap- 
pointed by congress decided in favor of the 
Republican electors and Mr. Hayes, the can- 
didate of that party was declared elected. 
In iSSo, the Democratic party, feeling that 
Mr. Tilden had been lawfully elected to the 
presidency tendered tlie nomination for the 
same of^ce to Mr. Tilden, but he declined, 
retiring from all public functions, owing to 
failing health. He died August 4, 1886. 
By will he bequeathed several millions of 
dollars toward the founding of public libra- 
ries in New York Citv, Yonkers, etc. 



NOAH WEBSTER.— As a scholar, law- 
yer, author and journalist, there is no 
one who stands on a higher plane, or whose 
reputation is better established than the 
honored gentleman whose name heads this 
.'•ketch. He was a native of West Hartford, 
Connecticut, and was born October 17, 
175S He came of an old New England 
family, his mother being a descendant of 
Governor William Bradford, of the Ply- 
mouth colony. After acquiring a solid edu- 
cation in early life Dr. Webster entered 
Yale College, from which he graduated in 



1778. For a while he taught school in 
Hartford, at the same time studying law, 
and was admitted to the bar in 178 1. He 
taught a classical school at Goshen, Orange 
county, New York, in 1782-83, and while 
there prepared his spelling book, grammar 
and reader, which was issued under the title 
of "A Grammatical Institute of the English 
Language," in three parts, — so successful a 
work that up to 1876 something like forty 
million of the spelling books had been 
sold. In 1786 he delivered a course of lec- 
tures on the English language in the seaboard 
cities and the following year taught an 
academy at Philadelphia. From December 
17, 17S7, until November, 17SS, he edited 
the "American Magazine, "a periodical that 
proved unsuccessful. In 17S9-93 he prac- 
ticed law in Hartford having in the former 
year married the daughter of William Green- 
leaf, of Boston. He returned to New York 
and November, 1793, founded a dailj' paper, 
the "Minerva," to which was soon added a 
semi-weekly edition under the name of the 
" Herald." The former is still in e.xistence 
under the name of the "Commercial Adver- 
tiser." In this paper, over the signature of 
"Curtius," he published a lengthy and schol- 
arly defense of "John Jay's treaty." 

In 1798, Dr. Webster moved to New 
Haven and in 1807 commenced the prepar- 
ation of his great work, the "American Dic- 
tionary of the English Language." which 
was not completed and published until 1828. 
He made his home in Amherst, Massachu- 
setts, for the ten years succeeding 1812, and 
was instrumental in the establishment of 
Amherst College, of which institution he was 
the first president of the board of trustees. 
During 1824-5 he resided in Europe, pursu- 
ing his philological studies in Paris. He 
completed his dictionary from the libraries 
of Cambridge University in 1825, and de- 



50 



COMPEXDJUM OF BIOGRAI'MV 



voted his leisure for the remainder of his 
life to the revision of that and his school 
books. 

Dr. Webster was a member of the legis- 
latures of both Connecticut and Massachu- 
setts, was judge of one of the courts of the 
former state and was identified with nearly 
all the literary and scientific societies in the 
neighborhood of Amherst College. He died 
in New Haven, May 28, 1843. 

Among the more prominent works ema- 
nating from the fecund pen of Dr. Noah 
Webster besides those mentioned above are 
the following: "Sketches of American 
Policy," " Winthrop's Journal," " A Brief 
History of Epidemics," "Rights of Neutral 
Nations in time of War," "A Philosophical 
and Practical Grammar of the English Lan- 
guage," "Dissertations on the English 
Language," "A Collection of Essays," 
"The Revolution in France," "Political 
Progress of Britain," "Origin, History, and 
Connection of the Languages of Western 
Asia and of Europe ," and many others. 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, the 
great anti-slavery pioneer and leader, 
was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, 
December 12, 1804. He was apprenticed 
to the printing business, and in 1828 was in- 
duced to take charge of the "Journal of the 
Times" at Bennington, Vermont. While 
supporting John Quincy Adams for the presi- 
dency he took occasion in that paper to give 
expression of his views on slavery. These 
articles attracted notice, and a Quaker 
named Lundy, editor of the "Genius of 
Emancipation," published in Baltimore, in- 
duced him to enter a partnership with him 
for the conduct of his paper. It soon 
transpired that the views of the partners 
were not in harmony, Lundy favoring grad- 
ual emancipation, while Garrison favored 



immediate freedom. In 1850 Mr. Garrison 
was thrown into prison for libel, not being 
able to pay a fine of fifty dollars and costs. 
In his cell he wrote a number of poems 
which stirred the entire north, and a mer- 
chant, Mr. Tappan, of New York, paid his 
fine and liberated him, after seven weeks of 
confinement. He at once began a lecture 
tour of the northern cities, denouncing 
slavery as a sin before God, and demanding 
its immediate abolition in the name of re- 
ligion and humanity. He opposed the col- 
onization scheme of President Monroe and 
other leaders, and declared the right of 
every slaxe to immediate freedom. 

In 1 83 1 he formed a partnership with 
Isaac Knapp, and began the publication of 
the " Liberator " at Boston. The " imme- 
diate abolition " idea began to gather power 
in the north, while the south became 
alarmed at the bold utterance of this jour- 
nal. The maj-or of Boston was besought 
by southern influence to interfere, and upon 
investigation, reported upon the insignifi- 
cance, obscurity, and poverty of the editor 
and his staff, which report was widely 
published throughout the country. Re- 
wards were offered by the southern states 
for his arrest and conviction. Later Garri- 
son brought from England, where an eman- 
cipation measure had just been passed, 
some of the great advocates to work for the 
cause in this country. In 1835 a mob 
broke into his office, broke up a meeting of 
women, dragged Garrison through the streei 
with a rope around his body, and his life 
was saved only by the interference of the 
police, who lodged him in jail. Garrison 
declined to sit in the World's Anti-Slaverv 
convention at London in 1 840, because 
that body had refused women representa- 
tion. He opposed the formation of a pv^- 
litical party with emancipation as its basis. 



C OMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



51 



He favored a dissolution of the union, and 
declared the constitution which bound the 
free states to the slave states " A covenant 
with death and an agreement with hell." 
In 1S43 he became president of the Amer- 
ican Anti-Slavery society, which position he 
held unt^l 1865, when slavery was no more. 
During all this time the " Liberator " had 
continued to promulgate anti-slavery doc- 
trines, but in 1S65 Garrison resigned his 
position, and declared his work was com- 
pleted. He died May 24, 1879. 



JOHN BROWN ("Brown of Ossawato- 
inie"), a noted character in American 
history, wasbornatTorrington, Connecticut, 
May 9, 1800. In his childhood he removed 
to Ohio, where he learned the tanner's 
trade. He married there, and in 1855 set- 
tled in Kansas. He lived at the village of 
Ossawatomie in that state, and there began 
his fight against slavery. He advocated im- 
mediate emancipation, and held that the 
negroes of the slave states merely waited 
for a leader in an insurrection that would re- 
sult in their freedom. He attended the 
convention called at Chatham, Canada, in 
1859, and was the leading spirit in organiz- 
ing a raid upon the United States arsenal at 
Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His plans were 
well laid, and carried out in great secrecy. 
He rented a farm house near Harper's Ferry 
in the summer of 1859, and on October 
1 6th of that year, with about twenty follow- 
ers, he surprised and captured the United 
States arsenal, with all its supplies and 
arms. To his surprise, the negroes did not 
come to his support, and the next day he 
was attacked by the Virginia state militia, 
wounded and captured. He was tried in 
the courts of the state, convicted, and was 
hanged at Charlestown, December 2, 1859. 
The raid and its results had a tremendous 



effect, and hastened the culmination of the 
troubles between the north and south. The 
south had the advantage in discussing this 
event, claiming that the sentiment which 
inspired this act of violence was shared by 
the anti-slavery element of the country. 



EDWIN BOOTH had no peer upon the 
American stage during his long career 
as a star actor. He was the son of a famous 
actor, Junius Brutus Booth, and was born 
in 1833 at his father's home at Belair, near 
Baltimore. At the age of sixteen he made his 
first appearance on the stage, at the Boston 
Museum, in a minor part in " Richard III." 
It was while playing in California in 1851 
that an eminent critic called general atten- 
tion to the young actor's unusual talent. 
However, it was not until 1863, at the great 
Shakspearian revival at the Winter Garden 
Theatre, New York, that the brilliancy ol 
his career began. His Hamlet held the 
boards for 100 nights in succession, and 
from that time forth Booth's reputation was 
established. In 1868 he opened his own 
theatre (Booth's Theater) in New York. 
Mr. Booth never succeeded as a manager, 
however, but as an actor he was undoubted- 
ly the most popular man on the American 
stage, and perhaps the most eminent one in 
the world. In England he also won the 
greatest applause. 

Mr. Booth's work was confined mostly 
to Shakspearean roles, and his art was 
characterized by intellectual acuteness, 
fervor, and poetic feeling. His Hamlet, 
Richard II, Richard III, and Richelieu gave 
play to his greatest powers. In 1865, 
when his brother, John Wilkes Booth, 
enacted his great crime, Edwin Bootli re- 
solved to retire from the stage, but was pur- 
suaded to reconsider that decision. The 
odium did not in any way attach to the 



01' 



COMPEXDILM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



great actor, and his popularity was not 
affected. In all his work Mr. Booth clung 
closely to the legitimate and the traditional 
in drama, making no experiments, and offer- 
ing little encouragement to new dramatic 
authors. His death occurred in New York, 
June 7, 1894. 



JOSEPH HOOKER, a noted American 
officer, was born at Hadley, Massachu- 
setts. November 13, 1 8 14. He graduated 
from West Point Military Academy in 1837, 
and was appointed lieutenant of artillery. 
He served in Florida in the Seminole war, 
and in garrison until the outbreak of the 
Mexican war. During the latter he saw 
service as a staff ofificer and was breveted 
captain, major and lieutenant-colonel for 
gallantry at Monterey, National Bridge and 
Chapulteoec. Resigning his commission in 
1833 he took up farming in California, which 
he followed until 1861. Daring this time 
he acted as superintendent of military roads 
in Oregon. At the outbreak of the Rebel- 
lion Hooker tendered his services to the 
government, and, May 17, 1861, was ap- 
pointed brigadier-general of volunteers. He 
served in the defence of Washington and on 
the lower Potomac until his appointment to 
the command of a division in the Third 
Corps, in March, 1862. For gallant con- 
duct at the siege of Yorktown and in the 
battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Fra- 
zier's Farm and Malvern Hill he was made 
major-general. At the head of his division 
he participated in the battles of Manassas 
and Chantiily. September 6, 1862, he was 
placed at the head of the First Corps, and 
in the battles of South Mountam and An- 
tietam acted with his usual gallantry, being 
wounded m the latter engagement. On re- 
joining the army in November he was made 
brigadier-general in the regular army. On 



General Burnside attaining the command of 
the Army of the Potomac General Hooker 
was placed in command of the center grand 
division, consisting of the Second and Fifth 
Corps. At the head of these gallant men 
he participated in the battle of Fred- 
ericksburg, December 13, 1862. In Janu- 
ary, 1863, General Hooker assumed com- 
mand of the Army of the Potomac, and in 
May following fought the battle of Chan- 
cellorsville. At the time of the invasion of 
Pennsylvania, owing to a dispute with Gen- 
eral Halleck, Hooker requested to be re- 
lieved of his command, and June 28 was 
succeeded by George G. Meade. In Sep- 
tember, 1863, General Hooker was given 
command of the Twentieth Corps and trans- 
ferred to the Army of the Cumberland, and 
distinguished himself at the battles of Look- 
out Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and Ring- 
gold. In the Atlanta campaign he saw 
almost daily service and merited his well- 
known nickname of " Fighting Joe." July 
30, 1864, at his own request, he was re- 
lieved of his command. He subsequently 
was in command of several military depart- 
ments in the north, and in October, 1S68, 
was retired with the full rank of major-gen- 
eral. He died October 31, 1879. 



JAY GOULD, one of the greatest finan- 
ciers that the world has ever produced, 
was born May 27, 1836, at Roxbury, Dela- 
ware county, New York. He spent his early 
years on his father's farm and at the age of 
fourteen entered Hobart Academy, New 
York, and kept books for the village black- 
smith. He acquired a taste for mathematics 
and surveying and on leaving school found 
employment in making the surveyor's map 
of Ulster county. He surveyed very exten- 
sivelj' in the state and accumulated five thou- 
sand dollars as the fruits of his libor. He 



<; oMPEXDi i .]/ or Bi o t; am /-//;■ 



was then stricken with tjphoid fever but re- 
covered and n^.^ae the acquaintance of one 
Zadock Pratt, who sent him into the west- 
ern part of the state to locate a site for a 
tannery. He chose a fine hemlock grove, 
built a sawmill and blacksmith shop and 
was soon doing a large lumber business with 
Mr. Pratt. Mr. Gould soon secured control 
of the entire plant, which he sold out just 
before the panic of 1857 and in this year he 
became the largest stockholderintheStrouds- 
burg, Pennsylvania, bank. Shortly after the 
crisis he bought the bonds of the Rutland 
& Washington Railroad at ten cents on the 
dollar, and put all his monej- into railroad 
securities. For a long time he conducted 
this road which he consolidated with the 
Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad. In 1859 
he removed to New York and became a 
heavy investor in Erie Railroad stocks, en- 
tered that companj- and was president until 
its reorganization in 1S72. In December, 
1880, Mr. Gould was in control of ten thou- 
sand miles of railroad. In 1887 he pur- 
chased the controlling interest in the St. 
Louis & San Francisco Railroad Co., and 
was a joint owner with the Atchison, Topeka 
& Santa Fe Railroad Co. of the western 
portion of the Southern Pacific line. Other 
lines soon came under his control, aggregat- 
ing thousand of miles, and he soon was rec- 
ognized as one of the world's greatest rail- 
road magnates. He continued to hold his 
place as one of the master financiers of the 
century until the time of his death which 
occurred December 2, 1892. 



THOMAS HART BENTON, a very 
prominent United States senator and 
statesman, was born at Hillsborough, North 
Carolina, March 14, 1782. He removed to 
Tennessee in early life, studied law, and be- 
gan to practice at Nashville about 1810. J 



During the war of 1812-1S15 he served as 
colonel of a Tennessee regiment under Gen- 
eral Andrew Jackson. In 181 5 he removed 
to St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1820 was 
chosen United States senator for that state. 
Having been re-elected in 1826, he sup- 
ported President Jackson in his opposition 
to the United States bank and advocated a 
gold and silver currency, thus gaining the 
name of " Old Bullion," by which he was 
familiarl}' known. For niany years he was 
the most prominent man in Missouri, and 
took rank among the greatest statesmen of 
his day. He was a member of the senate 
for thirty years and opposed the extreme 
states' rights policy of John C. Calhoun. 
In 1852 he was elected to the house of rep- 
resentatives in which he opposed the repeal 
of the Missouri compromise. He was op- 
posed by a powerful party of States' Rights 
Democrats in Missouri, who defeated him as a 
candidate for governor of that state in 1856. 
Colonel Benton published a considerable 
work in two volumes in 1854-56, entitled 
" Thirty Years' View, or a History of the 
Working of the American Government for 
Thirty Years, 1820-50." He died April 10, 
1858. 

STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS.— One 
of the most prominent figures in politic- 
al circles during the intensely exciting days 
that preceded the war, and a leader of the 
Union branch of the Democratic party was 
the gentleman whose name heads this 
sketch. 

He was born at Brandon, Rutland coun- 
ty, Vermont, April 23, 1S13, of poor but 
respectable parentage. His father, a prac- 
ticing physician, died while our subject was 
but an infant, and his mother, with two 
small children and but small means, could 
give him but the rudiments of an education. 



54 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



At the age of fifteen young Douglas enjjaged 
at work in the cabinet making business to 
raise fui;ds to carry him through college. 
After a few years of labor he was enabled to 
pursue an academical course, first at Bran- 
don, and later at Canandaigua, New York. 
In the latter place he remained until 1833, 
taking up the study of law. Before he was 
twenty, however, his lunds running low, he 
abandoned all further attempts at educa- 
tion, determining to enter at once the battle 
of life. After some wanderings tnrough the 
western states he tooK up his residence at 
Jacksonville, Illinois, where, after teaching 
school for three months, he was admitted to 
the bar, and opened an office in 1S34. 
Within a year from that time, so rapidly had 
he risen in his profession, he was chosen 
attorney general of the state, and warmly 
espoused the principles of the Democratic 
party. He soon became one of the most 
popular orators in Ilimois. It was at this 
time he gained the name of the "Little 
Giant." In 1835 he resigned the position 
of attorney general having been elected to 
the legislature. In 1841 he was chosen 
judge of the supreme court of Illinois which 
he resigned two years later to take a seat in 
congress. It was during this period of his 
life, while a member of the lower house, 
that he established his reputation and took 
the side of those who contended that con- 
gress had no constitutional right to restrict 
the extension of slavery further than the 
agreement between the states made in 1820. 
This, in spite of his being opposed to slav- 
ery, and only on grounds which he believed 
to be rigi;t, favored what was called the 
Missouri ccmpromise. In 1847 Mr. Doug- 
las was chosen United States senator for 
six years, and greatly distinguished himself. 
In 1S52 he was re-eiected to the same office. 
During this latter term, under his leader- 



ship, the •• Kansas-Nebraska bill " was car- 
ried in the senate. In 1858, nothwith- 
standing the fierce contest made by his able 
competitor for the position, Abraham Lin- 
coln, and with the administration of Bu- 
chanan arrayed against him, Mr. Douglas 
was re-elected senator. After the trouble 
in the Charleston convention, when by the 
withdrawal of several state delegates with- 
out a nomination, the Union Democrats, 
in convention at Baltimore, in i860, nomi- 
nated Mr. Douglas as their candidate for 
presidency. The results of this election are 
well known and the great events of 1861 
coming on, Mr. Douglas was spared their 
full development, dying at Chicago, Illinois. 
June 3, 1861, after a short illness. His 
last words to his children were, " to obey 
the lasvs and support the constitution of the 
United States." 



J 



AMES MONROE, fifth president of the 
United States, was born in Westmore- 
land county, Virginia, April 28, 1758. At 
the age of sixteen he entered William and 
Mary College, but two years later the 
Declaration of Independence having been 
adopted, he left college and hastened to New 
York where he joined Washington's army as 
a military cadet. 

At the battle of Trenton Monroe per- 
formed gallant service and received a wound 
in the shoulder, and was promoted to a 
captaincy. He acted as aide to Lord Ster- 
ling at the battles of Brandywine, German- 
town and Monmouth. Washington then 
sent him to Virginia to raise a new regimen: 
of which he was to be colonel. The ex- 
hausted condition of Virginia made this im- 
possible, but he received his commission. 
He next entered the law office of Thomas 
Jefferson to study law, as there was no open- 
ing for him as an officer in the army, in 



COMPEXDICM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



55 



1782 he was elected to the Virginia assem- 
bly, and the next year he was elected to the 
Continental congress. Realizing the inade- 
quacy of the old articles of confederation, 
he advocated the calling of a convention to 
consider their revision, and introduced in 
congress a resolution empowering congress 
to regulate trade, lay import duties, etc. 
This resolution was referred to a committee, 
of which he was chairman, and the report 
led to the Annapolis convention, which 
called a general convention to meet at Phila- 
delphia in 1787, when the constitution was 
drafted. Mr. Monroe began the practice of 
law at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and was 
soon after ^'-icted to the legislature, and ap- 
pointed as one of the committee to pass 
upon the adoption of the constitution. He 
opposed it, as giving too much power to the 
central government. He was elected to the 
United States senate in 1789, where he 
allied himself with the Anti-Federalists or 
"Republicans," as they were sometimes 
called. Although his views as to neutrality 
between France and England were directly 
opposed to those of the president, yet Wash- 
ington appointed him minister to France. 
His popularity in France was so great that 
the antagonism of England and her friends 
in this country brought about his recall. He 
then became governor of Virginia. He was 
sent as envoy to France in 1S02; minister 
to England in 1803; and envoy to Spain in 
1805. The next year he returned to his 
estate in Virginia, and with an ample in- 
heritance enjoyed a few years of repose. He 
was again called to be governor of Virginia, 
and was then appointed secretary of state 
by President Madison. The war with Eng- 
land soon resulted, and when the capital 
was burned by the British, Mr. Monroe be- 
came secretary of war also, and planned the 
measures for the defense of New Orleans. 



The treasury being exhausted and credit 
gone, he pledged his own estate, and thereby 
made possible the victory of Jackson at New 
Orleans. 

In 1 8 17 Mr. Monroe became president 
of the United States, having been a candi- 
date of the "Republican" party, which at 
that time had begun to be called the ' ' Demo- 
cratic " party. In 1820 he was re-elected, 
having two hundred and thirty-one electoral 
votes out of two hundred and thirty-two. 
His administration is known as the "Era of 
good-feeling, " and party lines were almost 
wiped out. The slavery question began to 
assume importance at this time, and the 
Missouri Compromise was passed. The 
famous "Monroe Doctrine" originated in a 
great state paper of President Monroe upon 
the rumored interference of the Holy Alli- 
ance to prevent the formation of free repub- 
lics in South America. President Monroe 
acknowledged their independence, and pro- 
mulgated his great "Doctrine," which has 
been held in reverence since. Mr. Monroe's 
death occurred in New York on Jul}- 4, 1831. 



THOMAS ALVA EDISON, the master 
wizard of electrical science aad whose 
name is synonymous with the subjugation 
of electricity to the service of man, was 
born in 1847 at Milan, Ohio, and it was at 
Port Huron, Michigan, whither his parents 
had moved in 1S54, that his self-education 
began — for he never attended school for 
more than two months. He eagerly de- 
voured every book he could lay his hands on 
and is said to have read through an encyclo- 
pedia without missing a word. At thirteen he 
began his working life as a trainboy upon the 
Grand Trunk Railway between Port Huron 
and Detroit. Much of his time was now 
spent in Detroit, where he found increased 
facilities for reading at the public libraries. 



56 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV. 



He was not content to be a newsboy, so he 
got logether three hundred pounds of type 
and started the issue of the " Grand Trunk 
Herald." It was only a small amateur 
weekly, printed on one side, the impression 
being made from the type by hand. Chemi- 
cal research was his next undertaking and 
a laboratory was added to his movable pub- 
lishing house, which, by the way, was an 
old freight car. One ciay, however, as he 
was e.xperimenting with some phosphorus, 
it ignited and the irate conductor threw the 
young seeker after the truth, chemicals and 
all, from the train. His office and laboratory 
were then removed to the cellar of his fa- 
ther's hQUse. As he grew to manhood he 
decided to become an operator. He won 
his opportunity by saving the life of a child, 
whose father was an old operator, and out of 
gratitude he gave Mr. Edison lessons in teleg- 
raphy. Five months later he was compe- 
tent to fill a position in the railroad office 
at Port Huron. Hence he peregrinated to 
Stratford, Ontario, and thence successively 
to Adrian, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Cin- 
cumati, Memphis, Louisville and Boston, 
gradually becoming an expert operator and 
gaming experience that enabled him to 
evolve many ingenious ideas for the im- 
provement of telegraphic appliances. At 
Memphis he constructed an automatic re- 
peater, which enabled Louisville and New 
Orleans to communicate direct, and received 
nothing more than the thanks of his em- 
ployers. Mr. Edison came to New York in 
1870 in search of an opening more suitable 
to his capabilities and ambitions. He hap- 
pened to be in the office of the Laws Gold 
Reporting Company when one of the in- 
struments got out of order, and even the 
inventor of the system could not make it 
work. Edison requested to be allowed to 
attempt the task, and in a few minutes he 



had overcome the difficulty and secured an 
advantageous engagement. For several 
} ears he had a contract with the Western 
Union and the Gold Stock companies, 
whereby he received a large salary, besides 
a special price for all telegraphic improve- 
ments he could suggest. Later, as the 
head of the Edison General Electric com- 
pany, with its numerous subordinate organ- 
izations and connections all over the civil- 
ized world, he became several times a 
millionaire. Mr. Edison invented the pho- 
nograph and kinetograph which bear his 
name, the carbon telephone, the tasimeter, 
and the duplex and quadruplex systems of 
telegraphy. 

JAMES LONGSTREET, one of the most 
conspicuous of the Confederate generals 
during the Civil war, was born in 1820, in 
South Carolina, but was early taken by his 
parents to Alabama where he grew to man- 
hood and received his early education. He 
graduated at the United States military 
academy in 1842, entering the army as 
lieutenant and spent a few years in the fron- 
tier service. When the Mexican war broke 
out he was called to the front and partici- 
pated in all the principal battles of that war 
up to the storming of Chapultepec, where 
he received severe wounds. For gallant 
conduct at Contreras, Cherubusco, and Mo- 
lino del Rey he received the brevets of cap- 
tain and major. After tiie close of the 
Mexican war Longstreet served as adjutant 
and captain on frontier service in Texas un- 
til 1858 when he was transferred to the staff 
as paymaster with rank of major. In June, 
1 861, he resigned to join the Confederacy 
and immediately went to the front, com- 
manding a brigade at Bull Run the follow- 
ing month. Promoted to be major-general 
in 1 862 he thereafter bore a conspicuous 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRA/'Ur 



01 



part and rendered valuable service to the 
Confederate cause. He participated in 
many of the most severe battles of the Civil 
war including Bull Run (first and second), 
Seven Pines, Gaines' Mill, Fraziers Farm, 
Malvern Hill, Antietam, Frederickburg, 
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, 
the Wilderness, Petersburg and most of the 
fighting about Richmond. 

When the war closed General Long- 
street accepted the result, renewed his alle- 
giance to the government, and thereafter 
labored earnestly to obliterate all traces of 
war and promote an era of good feeling be- 
tween all sections of the country. He took 
up his residence in New Orleans, and took 
an active interest and prominent part in 
public affairs, served as surveyor of that 
port for several years; was commissioner of 
engineers for Louisiana, served four years 
as school commissioner, etc. In 1875 he 
was appointed supervisor of internal revenue 
and settled in Georgia. After that time he 
served four years as United States minister 
to Turkey, and also for a number of j'ears 
was United States marshal of Georgia, be- 
sides having held other important official 
positions. 

JOHN RUTLEDGE, the second chief- 
justice of the United States, was born 
at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1739. 
He was a son of John Rutledge, who had 
left Ireland for America about five years 
prior to the birth of our subject, and a 
brother of Edward Rutledge, a signer of the 
Declaration of Independence. John Rut- 
ledge received his legal education at the 
Temple, London, after which he returned 
to Charleston and soon won distinction at 
the bar. He was elected to the old Colonial 
congress in 1765 to protest against the 
" Stamp Act," and was a member of the 



South Carolina convention of 1774, an-! of 
the Continental congress of that and the 
succeeding year. In 1776 he was chairman 
of the committee that draughted the con- 
stitution of his state, and was president of 
the congress of that state. He was not 
pleased with the state constitution, how- 
ever, and resigned. In 1779 he was again 
chosen governor of the state, and granted 
extraordinary powers, and he at once took 
the field to repel the British. He joined 
the army of General Gates in 1782, and the 
same year was elected to congress. He 
was a member of the constitutional con- 
vention which framed our present constitu- 
tion. In 1 7S9 he was appointed an associate 
justice of the first supreme court of the 
United States. He resigned to accept the 
position of chief-justice of his own state. 
Upon the resignation of Judge Jay^ he was 
appointed chief-justice of the United States 
in 1795. The appointment was never con- 
firmed, for, after presiding at one session, 
his mind became deranged, and he was suc- 
ceeded by Judge Ellsworth. He died at 
Charleston, July 23, 1800. 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON was one 
of the most noted literary men of his 
time. He was born in Boston, Massachu- 
setts, May 25, 1803. He had a minister for 
an ancestor, either on the paternal or ma- 
ternal side, in every generation for eight 
generations back. His father, Rev. Will- 
iam Emerson, was a native of Concord, 
Massachusetts, born May 6, 1 769, ^aduated 
at Harvard, in 1789, became a Unitarian 
minister; was a fine writer and one of the 
best orators of his day; died in 181 i. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson was fitted for 
college at the public schools of Boston, and 
graduated at Harv-.ird College in 1821, win- 
ning about this time several prizes for es- 



58 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



says. For five years he taught school in 
Boston; in 1826 was licensed to preach, and 
in 1829 was ordained as a colleague to Rev. 
Henry Ware of the Second Unitarian church 
in Boston. In 1832 he resigned, making 
the announcement in a sermon of his un- 
Afillingness longer to administer the rite of 
.he Lord's Supper, after which he spent 
about a year in Europe. Upon his return 
he began his career as a lecturer before the 
Boston Mechanics Institute, his subject be- 
ing "Water." His early lectures on " Italy" 
and "Relation of Man to the Globe " also 
attracted considerable attention; as did also 
his biographical lectures on Michael Angelo, 
Milton, Luther. George Fox, and Edmund 
Burke. After that time he gave many 
courses of lectures in Boston and became 
one of the best known lecturers in America. 
But very few men have rendered such con- 
tinued service in this field. He lectured for 
lorty successive seasons before the Salem, 
Massachusetts, Lyceum and also made re- 
peated lecturing tours in this country and in 
England. In 1835 Mr. Emerson took up 
his residence at Concord, Massachusetts, 
where he continued to make his home until 
his death which occurred April 27, 1882. 

Mr. Emerson's literary work covered a 
wide scope. He wrote and published many 
works, essays and poems, which rank high 
among the works of American literary men. 
A few of the many which he produced are 
the following: "Nature;" "The Method 
ofNature;" " Man Thinking;" "The Dial;" 
"Essays;'.' "Poems;" "English Traits;" 
"The Conduct of Life;" "May-Day and 
other Poems " and " Society and Solitude;" 
besides many others. He was a prominent 
member of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, of the American Philosophical 
Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society 
and other kindred associations. 



ALEXANDER T. STEWART, one of 
the famous merchant princes of New 
York, was born near the city of Belfast, Ire- 
land, in 1803, and before he was eight years 
of age was left an orphan without any near 
relatives, save an aged grandfather. The 
grandfather being a pious Methodist wanted 
to make a minister of young Stewart, and 
accordingly put him in a school with that 
end in view and he graduated at Trinity Col- 
lege, in Dublin. When scarcely twenty 
years of age he came to New York. His 
first employment was that of a teacher, but 
accident soon made him a merchant. En- 
tering into business relations with an e.\- 
perienced man of his acquaintance he soon 
found himself with the rent of a store on 
his hands and alone in a new enterprise. 
Mr. Stewart's business grew rapidly in all 
directions, but its founder had executive 
ability sufficient for any and all emergencies, 
and in time his house became one of the 
greatest mercantile establishments of mod- 
ern times, and the name of Stewart famous. 
Mr. Stewart's death occurred April 10, 
1S76. 

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. — In 
speaking of this noted American nov- 
elist, William Cullen Bryant said: " He 
wrote for mankind at large, hence it is that 
he has earned a fame wider than any Amer- 
ican author of modern times. The crea- 
tions of his genius shall survive through 
centuries to come, and only perish with our 
language." Another eminent writer (Pres- 
cott) said of Cooper: " In his productions 
every American must take an honest pride; 
for surely no one has succeeded like Cooper 
in the portraiture of American character, or 
has given such glowing and eminently truth- 
ful pictures of American scenery." 

James Fenimore Cooper was born Sep- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV. 



59 



tember 15, 1789, at Burlington, New Jer- 
sey, and wasasonof Judge William Cooper. 
About a year after the birth of our subject 
the family removed to Otsego county, New 
York, and founded the town called " Coop- 
erstown." James Fenimore Cooper spent 
his childhood there and in 1802 entered 
Yale College, and four jears later became a 
midshipman in the United States navy. In 
181 1 he was married, quit the seafaring life, 
and began devoting more or less time to lit- 
erary pursuits. His first work was " Pre- 
caution," a novel published in 1819, and 
three years later he produced "The Spy, a 
Tale of Neutral Ground," which met with 
great favor and was a universal success. 
This was followed by many other works, 
among which may be mentioned the follow- 
ing: " The Pioneers," "The Pilot," "Last 
of the Mohicans," "The Prairie," "The 
Red Rover," "The Manikins," "Home- 
ward Bound," "Home as Found," "History 
of the United States Navy," "The Path- 
finder," "Wing and Wing," "Afloat and 
Ashore," "The Chain-Bearer," "Oak- 
Openings," etc. J. Fenimore Cooper died 
at Cooperstown, New York, September 14, 
1851. 

MARSHALL FIELD, one of the mer- 
chant princes of America, ranks among 
the most successful business men of the cen- 
tury. He was born in 1835 a* Conway, 
Massachusetts. He spent his early life on 
a farm and secured a fair education in the 
common schools, supplementing this with a 
course at the Conway Academy'. His 
natural bent ran in the channels of commer- 
cial life, and at the age of seventeen he was 
given a position in a store at Pittsfield, 
Massachusetts. Mr. Field remained there 
four years and removed to Chicago in 1856. 
He began his career in Chicago as a clerk 



in the wholesale dry goods house of Cooley, 
Wadsworth tv Company, which later be- 
came Cooley, Farwell & Company, and still 
later John V. Farwell & Company. He 
remained with them four years and exhibit- 
ed marked ability, in recognition of which 
he was given a partnership. In 1865 Mr. 
Field and L. Z. Leiter, who was also a 
member of the firm, withdrew and formed 
the firm of Field, Palmer & Leiter, the 
third partner being Potter Palmer, and they 
continued in business until 1S67, when Mr. 
Palmer retired and the firm became Field, 
Leiter & Company. They ran under the 
latter name until 1881, when Mr. Leiter re- 
tired and the house has since continued un- 
der the name of Marshall Field & Company. 
The phenomenal success accredited to the 
house is largely due to the marked ability 
of Mr. Field, the house had become one of 
the foremost in the west, with an annual 
sale of $8,000,000 in 1870. The total loss 
of the firm during the Chicago fire was 
$3,500,000 of which $2,500,000 was re- 
covered through the insurance companies. 
It rapidlj' recovered from the effects of this 
and to-day the annual sales amount to over 
$40,000,000. Mr. Field's real estate hold- 
ings amounted to $10,000,000. He was 
one of the hea\iest subscribers to the Bap- 
tist University fund although he is a Presby- 
terian, and gave $1,000,000 for the endow- 
ment of the Field Columbian Museum — 
one of the greatest institutions of the kind 
in the world. 

EDGAR WILSON NYE, who won an im- 
mense popularity' under the pen name 
of " Bill Nye," was one of the most eccen- 
tric humorists of his day. He was born Au- 
gust 25, 1850, at Shirley, Piscataqua coun- 
ty, Maine, "at a very early age " as he ex- 
presses it. He took an academic course in 



60 



COMPEXDIL'M OF BIOGRAPHr. 



River Falls, Wisconsin, from whence, after 
his graduation, tie removed to Wyoming 
Territory. He studied law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1876. He began when 
quite joung to contribute humorous sketches 
to the newspapers, became connected with 
various western journals and achieved a 
brilliant success as a humorist. Mr. Nye 
settled later in New York City where he 
devoted his time to writing funny articles for 
the big newspaper syndicates. He wrote for 
publication in book form the following : 
"Bill Nye and the Boomerang," "The 
Forty Liars," "Baled Hay," "Bill Nye's 
Blossom Rock," "Remarks," etc. His 
death occurred February 21, 1896, at Ashe- 
ville. North Carolina. 



THOMAS DE WITT TALMAGE, one of 
the most celebrated American preach- 
ers, was born January 7, 1832, and was the 
youngest of twelve children. He made his 
preliminary studies at the grammar school 
in New Brunswick, New Jersey. At the age 
of eighteen he joined the church and entered 
the University of the City of New York, and 
graduated in May, 1853. The exercises 
were held in Niblo's Garden and his speech 
aroused the audience to a high pitch of en- 
thusiasm. At the close of his college duties 
he imagined himself interested in the law 
and for three years studied law. Dr. Tal- 
mage then perceived his mistake and pre- 
pared himself for the ministry at the 
Reformed Dutch Church Theological Semi- 
nary at New Brunswick, New Jersey. Just 
after his ordination the young minister re- 
ceived two calls, one from Piermont, New 
York, and the other from Belleville, New 
Jersey. Dr. Talmage accepted the latter 
and for three years filled that charge, when 
he was called to Syracuse, New York. Here 
it was that his sermons first drew large 



crowds of people to his church, and fronj 
thence dates his popularity. Afterward he 
became the pastor of the Second Reformed 
Dutch church, of Philadelphia, remaining 
seven years, during which period he first 
entered upon the lecture platform and laid 
the foundation for his future reputation. At 
the end of this time he received three calls, 
one from Chicago, one from San Francisco, 
and one from the Central Presbyterian 
church of Brooklyn, which latter at that 
time consisted of only nineteen members 
with a congregation of about thirty-five. 
This church offered him a salary of seven 
thousand dollars and he accepted the call. 
He soon induced the trustees to sell the old 
church and build a new one. They did so 
and erected the Brooklyn Tabernacle, but 
it burned down shortly after it was finished. 
By prompt sympathy and general liberality 
a new church was built and formally opened 
in February, 1874. It contained seats for 
four thousand, six hundred and fifty, but if 
necessary seven thousand could be accom- 
modated. In October, 1878, his salary was 
raised from seven thousand dollars to twelve 
thousand dollars, and in the autumn of 18S9 
the second tabernacle was destroyed by fire. 
.\ third tabernacle was built and it was for- 
mally dedicated on Easter Sunday, 1891. 



JOHN PHILIP SOUSA, conceded as 
being one of the greatest band leaders 
in the world, won his fame while leader of 
the United States Marine Band at Washing- 
ton, District of Columbia. He was not 
originally a band player but was a violinist, 
and at the age of seventeen he was conduc- 
tor of an opera company, a profession which 
he followed for several years, until he was 
offered the leadership of the Marine Band 
at Washington. The proposition was re- 
pugnant to him at first but he accepted the 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGKAI'tir. 



61 



offer and then ensued ten years of brilliant 
success with that organization. When he 
first took the Marine Band he began to 
gather the national airs of all the nations 
that have representatives in Washington, 
and compiled a comprehensive volume in- 
cluding nearly all the national songs of the 
different nations. He composed a number 
of marches, waltzes and two-steps, promi- 
nent among which are the "Washington 
Post," "Directorate," "King Cotton," 
" High School Cadets," "Belle of Chica- 
go," "Liberty Bell March," "Manhattan 
Beach," "On Parade March," " Thunderer 
March," "Gladiator March," " El Capitan 
March," etc. He became a very extensive 
composer of this class of music. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, sixth president 
of the United States, was born in 
Braintree, Massachusetts, July ii, 1767, 
the son of John Adams. At the age of 
eleven he was sent to school at Paris, and 
two years later to Leyden, where he entered 
that great university. He returned to the 
United States in 1785, and graduated from 
Harvard in 1788. He then studied law, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1791. His 
practice brought no income the first two 
years, but he won distinction in literary 
fields, and was appointed minister to The 
Hague in 1794. He married in 1797, and 
went as minister to Berlin the same year, 
serving until 1801, when Jefferson became 
president. He was elected to the senate in 
1803 by the Federalists, but was condemned 
by that party for advocating the Embargo 
Act and other Anti-Federalist measures. He 
was appointed as professor of rhetoric at 
Harvard in 1805, and in 1809 was sent as 
minister to Russia. He assisted in negotiat- 
ing the treaty of peace with England in 
1814, and became minister to that power 



the next year. He served during Monroe's 
administration two terms as secretary of 
state, during which time party lines were 
obliterated, and in 1824 four candidates for 
president appeared, all of whom were iden- 
tified to some extent with the new " Demo- 
cratic" party. Mr. Adams received 84 elec- 
toral votes, Jackson 99, Crawford 41, and 
Clay 37. As no candidate had a majority 
of all votes, the election went to the house 
of representatives, which elected Mr. Adams. 
As Clay had thrown his influence to Mr. 
Adams, Clay became secretary of state, and 
this caused bitter feeling on the part of the 
Jackson Democrats, who were joined by 
Mr. Crawford and his following, and op- 
posed every measure of the administration. 
In the election of 1828 Jackson was elected 
over Mr. Adams by a great majority. 

Mr. Adams entered the lower house of 
congress in 1830, elected from the district 
in which he was born and continued to rep- 
resent it for seventeen years. He was 
known as " the old man eloquent," and his 
work in congress was independent of party. 
He opposed slavery extension and insisted 
upon presenting to congress, one at a time, 
the hundreds of petitions against the slave 
power. One of these petitions, presented in 
1842, was signed by forty-five citizens of 
Massachusetts, and prayed congress for a 
peaceful dissolution of the Union. His 
enemies seized upon this as an opportunity 
to crush their powerful foe, and in a caucus 
meeting determined upon his expulsion from 
congress. Finding they would not be able 
to command enough votes for this, they de- 
cided upon a course that would bring equal 
disgrace. They formulated a resolution to 
the effect that while he merited expulsion, 
the house would, in great mercy, substitute 
its severest censure. When it was read in the 
house the old man. then in his seventy-fifth 



62 



COMPEXDJLM or BIOGRAr/ir 



year, arose and demanded that the first para- 
graph of the Declaration of Independence 
be read as his defense. It embraced the 
famous sentence, "that whenever any form 
of government becomes destructive to those 
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
abolish it, and to institute new government, 
etc., etc." After eleven days of hard fight- 
ing his opponents were defeated. On Febru- 
ary 21, 1S48, he rose to address the speaker 
on the Oregon question, when he suddenly 
fell from a stroke of paralysis. He died 
soon after in the rotunda of the capitol, 
where he had been conveyed by his col- 
leagues. 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY was one of the 
most famous women of America. She 
was born at South Adams, Massachusetts, 
February 15, 1820, the daughter of a 
Quaker. She received a good education 
and became a school teacher, following that 
profession for fifteen years in New York. 
Beginning with about 1852 she became the 
active leader of the woman's rights move- 
ment and won a wide reputation for her 
zeal and ability. She also distinguished 
herself for her zeal and eloquence in the 
temperance, and anti-slavery causes, and 
became a conspicuous figure during the war. 
After the close of the war she gave most of 
her labors to the cause of woman's suffrage. 



PHILIP D. ARMOUR, one of the most 
conspicuous figures in the mercantile 
history of America, was born May 16, 1S32, 
on a farm at Stockbridge, Madison county. 
New York, and received his early education 
in the common schools of that county. He 
was apprenticed to a farmer and worked 
faithfully and well, being very ambitious and 
desiring to start out for himself. At the 
age of twent}' he secured a release from his 



indentures and set out overland for the 
gold fields of California. ' After a great 
deal of hard work he accumulated a little 
money and then came east and settled 
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He went into 
the grain receiving and warehouse busi- 
ness and was fairly successful, and later on 
he formed a partnership with John Plankin- 
ton in the pork packing line, the style of the 
firm being Plankinton & Armour. Mr. Ar- 
mour made his first great "deal" in selling 
pork "short " on the New York market in 
the anticipation of the fall of the Confed- 
erac}', and Mr. Armour is said to have made 
through this deal a million dollars. He then 
established packing houses in Chicago and 
Kansas City, and in 1875 he removed to 
Chicago. He increased his business by add- 
ing to it the shipment of dressed beef to 
the European markets, and many other lines 
of trade and manufacturing, and it rapidly 
assumed vast proportions, employing an 
army of men in different lines of the busi- 
ness. Mr. Armour successfully conducted a 
great man}' speculative deals in pork and 
grain of immense proportions and also erected 
many large warehouses for the storage of 
grain. He became one of the representative 
business men of Chicago, where he became 
closely identified with all enterprises of a 
public nature, but his fame as a great busi- 
ness man e.xtended to all parts of the world. 
He founded the "Armour Institute " at Chi- 
cago and also contributed largely to benevo- 
lent and charitable institutions. 



ROBERT FULTON.— Although Fulton 
is best known as the inventor of the 
first successful ste'amboat, yet his claims to 
distinction do not rest alone upon that, for 
he was an inventor along other lines, a 
painter and an author. He was born at 
Lilile Britain, Lancaster count\', Pennsyl 



COMPENDIUM Or BIOGRAPJ/r 



65 



vania, in 1765, of Scotch-Irish ancestrj\ 
At the age of seventeen he removed to Phila- 
delphia, and there and in New York en- 
gaged in miniature painting with success 
both from a pecuniary and artistic point of 
view. \\'ith the results of his labors he pur- 
chased a farm for the support of his mother. 
He went to London and studied under the 
great painter, Benjamin West, and all 
through life retained his fondness for art 
and gave evidence of much ability in that 
line. While in England he was brought in 
contact with the Duke of Bridgewater, the 
father of the English canal system; Lord 
Stanhope, an eminent mechanician, and 
James Watt, the inventor of the steam en- 
gine. Their influence turned his mind to its 
true field of labor, that of mechanical in- 
vention. Machines for flax spinning, 
marble sawing, rope making, and for remov- 
ing earth from excavations, are among his 
earliest ventures. His "Treatise on the 
Improvement of Canal Navigation, " issued 
in 1796, and a series of essays on canals 
were soon followed by an English patent 
for canal improvements. In 1797 he went 
to Paris, where he resided until 1S06, and 
there invented a submarine torpedo boat for 
maritime defense, but which was rejected 
by the governments of France, England and 
the United States. In 1 803 he offered to con- 
struct for the Emperor Napoleon a steam- 
boat that would assist in carrying out the 
plan of invading Great Britain then medi- 
tated by that great captain. In pursuance 
he constructed his first steamboat on the 
Seine, but it did not prove a full success 
and the idea was abandoned by the French 
government. By the aid of Livingston, 
then United States minister to France, 
Fulton purchased, in iSo6,'an engine which 
he brought to this countr)'. After studying 
the defects of his own and other attempts in 



this line he built and launched in 1807 the 
Clermont, the first successful steamboat. 
This craft only attained a speed of five 
miles an hour while going up North river. 
His first patent not fully covering his m- 
vention, Fulton was engaged in many law 
suits for infringement. He constructed 
many steamboats, ferryboats, etc., among 
these being the United States steamer 
" Fulton the First," built in 18 14, the first 
war steamer ever built. This craft never 
attained any great speed owing to some de- 
fects in construction and accidentally blew 
up in 1829. Fulton died in New York, Feb- 
ruary 21, I Si 5. 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE, sixth 
chief-justice of the United States, and 
one of the most eminent of American jurists, 
was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, Jan- 
uary 13, 1S08. At the age of nine he was 
left in poverty by the death of his father, 
but means were found to educate him. He 
WIS sent to his uncle, a bishop, who con- 
ducted an academy near Columbus, Ohio, 
and here young Chase worked on the farm 
and attended school. At the age of fifteen 
he returned to his native state and entered 
Dartmouth College, from which he gradu- 
ated in 1 826. He then went to Washington, 
and engaged in teaching school, and study- 
ing law under the instruction of William 
Wirt. He was licensed to practice in 1S29, 
and went to Cincinnati, where he had a 
hard struggle for several years following. 
He had in the meantime prepared notes on 
the statutes of Ohio, which, when published, 
brought him into prominence locally. He 
was soon after appointed solicitor of the 
United States Bank. In 1837 he appeared 
■ as counsel for a fugitive slave woman, Ma- 
tilifa, and sought by all the powers of his 
learning and eloquence to prevent her owner 



C'5 



COMPEXDJLM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



from reclaiming her. He acted in many , 
other cases, and devolved the trite expres- [ 
sion, "Slavery is sectional, freedom is na- [ 
tional. " He was employed to defend Van 
Zandt before the supreme court of the United 
States in 1S46, which was one of the most 
noted cases connected with the great strug- 
gle against slavery. By this time Mr. Chase 
had become the recognized leader of that 
element known as " free-soilers." He was 
elected to the United States senate in 1849, 
and was chosen governor of Ohio in 1855 
and re-elected in 1857. He was chosen to 
the United States senate from Ohio in 1861, 
but was made secretary of the treasury by ; 
Lincoln and accepted. He inaugurated a 
financial system to replenish the exhausted 
treasury and meet the demands of the great- 
est war in history and at the same time to 
revive the industries of the country. One 
of the measures which afterward called for 
his judicial attention was the issuance of 
currency notes which were made a legal 
tender in payment of debts. When this 
question came before him as chief-justice 
of the United States he reversed his former 
action and declared the measure unconstitu- 
tional. The national banking system, by 
which all notes issued were to be based on 
funded government bonds of equal or greater 
amounts, had its direct origin with Mr. Chase. 
Mr. Chase resigned the treasury port- 
folio in 1864, and was appointed the same 
year as chief-justice of the United States 
supreme court. The great questions that 
came up before him at this crisis in the life 
of the nation were no less than those which 
confronted the first chief-justice at the for- ; 
mation of our government. Reconstruction, 
private, state and nationai mterests, the 
constitutionality ot the acts of congress ! 
Da5<;ed in tirces of great excitement, the 
construction and interpretation to be placed , 



upon the several amendments to the national 
constitution, — these were among the vital 
questions requiring prompt decision. He 
received a paralytic stroke in 1870, which 
impaired his health, though his mental 
powers were not affected. He continued to 
preside at the opening terms for two years 
loUowing and died May 7, 1873. 



H.\RRIET ELIZ.\BETH BEECHER 
STOWE, a celebrated American writ- 
er, was born June 14, 181 2, at Litchfield, 
Connecticut. She was a daughter of Lyman 
Beecher and a sister of Henry Ward Beecher, 
two noted divines; was carefully educated, 
and taught school for several years at Hart- 
ford, Connecticut. In 1832 Miss Beecher 
married Professor Stowe, then of Lane Semi- 
nary, Cincinnati, Ohio, and afterwards at 
Bowdoin College and Andover Seminary. 
Mrs. Stowe published in 1849 "The May- 
flower, or sketches of the descendants of the 
Pilgrims," and in 1851 commenced in the 
"National Era "of Washington, a serial story 
which was published separately in 1852 under 
the title of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." This 
book attained almost unparalleled success 
both at home and abroad, and within ten years 
it had been translated in almost every lan- 
guage of the civilized world. Mrs. Stowe pub- 
lished in 1853 a "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin" 
in which the data that she used was published 
and its truthfulness was corroborated. In 
1853 she accompanied her husband and 
brother to Europ'^, and o;i ner return puo- 
[ished " Sun.'^y Memories of Foreign Lands " 
in K<i4. Mrs. Stowe was for some time 
one 01 the editors of the " Atlantic Monthly" 
and the " Hearth and Home," for which 
she had written p. number of articles. 
Among these, also published separately, are 
" Dred, a tale of the Great Dismal Swamp" 
(later published under the title of "Nina 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV. 



G7 



Gordon"); "The Minister's Wooing;" "The 
Pearl of Orr's Island;" "Agnes of Sorrento;" 
"Oldtovvn Folks;" " My Wife and I;" "Bible 
Heroines," and "A Dog's Mission." Mrs. 
Stowe's death occurred July I, 1S96, at 
Hartford, Connecticut. 



THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON, bet- 
ter known as "Stonewall" Jackson, 
was one of the most noted of the Confeder- 
ate generals of the Civil war. He was a 
soldier by nature, an incomparable lieuten- 
ant, sure to execute any operation entrusted 
to him with marvellous precision, judgment 
and courage, and all his individual cam- 
paigns and combats bore the stamp of a 
masierly capacity for war. He was born 
January 21, 1S24, at Clarksburg, Harrison 
county. West Virginia. He was early in 
life imbued with the desire to be a soldier 
and it is said walked from the mountains of 
Virginia to Washington, secured the aid of 
his congressman, and was appointed cadet 
at the United States Military Academy at 
West Point from which he was graduated in 

1846. Attached to the army as brevet sec- 
ond lieutenant of the First Artillery, his first 
service was as a subaltern with Magruder's 
battery of light artillery in the Mexican war. 
He participated at the reduction of Vera 
Cruz, and was noticed for gallantry in the 
battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Moline 
del Rey, Chapultepec, and the capture of 
the city of Mexico, receiving the brevets of 
captain for conduct at Contreras and Cher- 
ubusco and of major at Chapultepec. In 
the meantime he had been advanced by 
regular promotion to be first lieutenant in 

1847. In 1S52, the war having closed, he 
resigned and became professor of natural 
and experimental philosophy and artillery 
instructor at the Virginia State Military 
Institute at Lexington, Virginia, where he 



remained until \'irginia declared for seces- 
sion, he becoming chiefly noted for intense 
religious sentiment coupled with personal 
eccentricities. Upon the breaking oi't of 
the war he was made colonel and placed in 
command of a force sent to sieze Harper's 
Ferry, which he accomplished May 3, 1S61. 
Relieved by General J. E. Johnston, May 
23, he took command of the brigade of 
Valley Virginians, whom he moulded into 
that brave corps, baptized at the first 
Manassas, and ever after famous as the 
" Stonewall Brigade." After this "Stone- 
wall " Jackson was made a major-general, 
in 1 86 1, and participated until his death in 
all the famous campaigns about Richmond 
and in \'irginia, and was a conspicuous fig- 
ure in the memorable battles of that time. 
May 2, 1S63, at Chancellorsville, he was 
wounded severely by his own troops, two 
balls shattering his left arm and another 
passing through the palm of his right hand. 
The left arm was amputated, but pneumonia 
intervened, and, weakened by the great loss 
of blood, he died May 10, 1863. The more 
his operations in the Shenandoah valley in 
1862 are studied the more striking must the 
merits of this great soldier appear. 



JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.— 
Near to the heart of the people of the 
Anglo-Saxon race will ever lie the verses of 
this, the "Quaker Poet." The author of 
"Barclay of Ury," "Maud MuUer" and 
"Barbara Frietchie," always pure, fervid 
and direct, will be remembered when many 
a more ambitious writer has been forgotten. 
John G. Whittier was born at Haver- 
hill, Massachusetts, December 7, 1807, of 
Quaker parentage. He had but a common- 
school education and passed his boyhood 
days upon a farm. In early life he learned 
the trade of shoemaker. .\t the age of 



63 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY, 



eighteen he began to write verses for the 
Haverhill •' Gazette." He spent two years 
after that at the Haverhill academy, after 
which, in 1829, he became editor of the 
"American Manufacturer," at Boston. In 
1830 he succeeded George D. Prentice as 
editor of the ' ' New England Weekly Re- 
view," but the following year returned to 
Haverhill and engaged in farming. In 1832 
and in 1836 he edited the " Gazette." In 
1835 he was elected a member of the legis- 
lature, serving two years. In 1 836 he became 
secretary of the Anti-slavery Society of Phil- 
adelphia. In 1838 and 1839 he edited the 
" Pennsylvania Freeman," but in the latter 
year the office was sacked and burned by a 
mob. In 1840 Whittier settled at Ames- 
bury, Massachusetts. In 1847 he became 
corresponding editor of the " National Era," 
an anti-slavery paper published at Washing- 
ton, and contributed to its columns many of 
his anti-slavery and other favorite lyrics. 
Mr. Whittier lived for many years in retire- 
ment of Quaker simplicity, publishing several 
volumes of poetry which have raised him to 
a high place among American authors and 
brought to him the love and admiration of 
his countrymen. In the electoral colleges 
of i860 and 1864 Whittier was a member. 
Much of his time after i8y6 was spent at 
Oak Knoll, Danvers, Massachusetts, but 
still retained his residence at Amesbury. 
He never married. His death occurred Sep- 
tember 7, 1892. 

The more prominent prose writings of 
John G. Whittier are as follows: "Legends 
of New England," "Justice and Expediency, 
or Slavery Considered with a View to Its Abo- 
lition," " The Stranger in Lowell," "Super- 
naturalism in New England," " Leaves from 
Margaret Smith's Journal," "Old Portraits 
and Modern Sketches " and " Literary 
Sketches."' 



DAVID DIXON PORTER, illustrious as 
admiral of the United States navy, and 
famous as one of the most able naval offi- 
cers of America, was born in Pennsylvania, 
June 8, 1814. His father was also a naval 
officer of distinction, who left the service of 
the United States to become commander of 
the naval forces of Me.xico during the war 
between that countr\- and Spain, and 
through this fact David Di.xon Porter was 
appointed a midshipman in the Mexican 
navy. Two years later David D. Porter 
joined the United States navy as midship- 
man, rose in rank and eighteen years later 
as a lieutenant he is found actively engaged 
in all the operations of our navy along the 
east coast of Mexico. When the Civil war 
broke out Porter, then a commander, was 
dispatched in the Powhattan to the relief of 
Fort Pickens, Florida. This duty accom- 
plished, he fitted out a mortar flotilla for 
the reduction of the forts guarding the ap- 
proaches to New Orleans, which it was con- 
sidered of vital importance for the govern- 
ment to get possession of. After the fall of 
New Orleans the mortar flotilla was actively 
engaged at Vicksburg, and in the fall of 
1862 Porter was made a rear-admiral and 
placed in command of all the naval forces 
on the western rivers above New Orleans. 
The ability of the man was now con- 
spicuously manifested, not only in the bat- 
tles in which he was engaged, but also in 
the creation of a formidable fleet out of 
river steamboats, which he covered with 
such plating as they would bear. In 1864 
he was transferred to the Atlantic coast to 
command the naval forces destined to oper- 
ate against the defences of Wilmington, 
North Carolina, and on Jan. 15, 1865, the 
fall of Fort Fisher was hailed by the country 
as a glorious termination of his arduous war 
service. In iSoo he was made vice-admiral 



CGMPE.\DIi'M OF BIOGRAPHV. 



6^7 



and appointed superintendent of the Naval 
Academy. On the death of Farragut, in 
iS/C, he succeeded that able man as ad- 
miral of the navy. His death occurred at 
Washington, February 13. 1S91. 



N.ATHAXIEL GREENE was one of the 
best known of the distinguished gen- 
erals who led the Continental soldiery 
against the hosts of Great Britain during 
the Revolutionary war. He was the son 
of Quaker parents, and was born at War- 
wick, Rhode Island, May 27, i/p. In 
youth he acquired a good education, chiefly 
by his own efforts, as he was a tireless 
reader. In 1770 he was elected a member 
of the Assembly of his native state. The 
news of the battle of Le.xington stirred 
his blood, and he offered his services to 
the government of the colonies, receiving 
the rank of brigadier-general and the com- 
mand of the troops from Rhode Island. 
He led them to the camp at Cambridge, 
and for thus violating the tenets of their 
faith, he was cast out of the Society of 
Friends, or Quakers. He soon won the es- 
teem of General Washington. In August, 

1776, Congress promoted Greene to the 
rank cf major-general, and in the battles of 
Trenton and Princeton he led a division. 
At the battle of Brandy wine, September 1 1, 

1777, he greatly distinguished himself, pro- 
tecting the retreat of the Continentals by 
his firm stand. At the battle of German- 
town, October 4, the same year, he com- 
manded the left wing of the army with 
credit. In March, 177S. he reluctantly ac- 
cepted the office of quartermaster-general, 
but only with the understanding that his 
rank in the army would not be affected and 
that in action he should retain his command. 
On the bloody field of Monmouth, June 28, 
177S, he commanded the right wing, as he 



did at the battle of Tiverton Heights. He 
was in command of the army in 17S0, dur- 
ing the absence of Washington, and was 
president of the court-martial that tried and 
condemned Major Andre. After General 
Gates' defeat at Camden, North Carolina, in 
the summer of 17S0, General Greene was ap- 
pointed to the command bf the southern army. 
He sent out a force under General Morgan 
who defeated General Tarleton at Cowpens, 
January 17, 17S1. On joining his lieuten- 
ant, in February, he found himself out num- 
bered by the British and retreated in good 
order to Virginia, but being reinforced re- 
turned to North Carolina where he fought 
the battle of Guilford, and a few da3-s later 
compelled the retreat of Lord Cornwallis. 
The British were followed by Greene part 
of the way, when the American army 
marched into South Carolina. After vary- 
ing success he fought the battle of Eutaw 
Springs, Septembers, 17S1. For the latter 
battle and its glorious consequences, which 
virtually closed the war in the Carolinas, 
Greene received a medal from Congress and 
many valuable grants of land from the 
colonies of North and South Carolina and 
Georgia. On the return of peace, after a 
year spent in Rhode Island. General Greene 
took up his residence on his estate near 
Savannah, Georgia, where he died June 19, 
1786. 

EDGAR ALLEN POE.— Among the 
many great literary men whom this 
country has produced, there is perhaps no 
name more widely known than that of Ed- 
gar Allen Poe. He was born at Boston, 
Massachusetts, February 19, 1809. His 
parents were David and Elizabeth (Arnold) 
Poe, both actors, the mother said to have 
been the natural daughter of Benedict Ar- 
nold. The parents died while Edgar was 



70 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHi: 



still a child and he was adopted by John 
Allen, a wealthy and influential resident of 
Richmond, Virginia. Edgar was sent to 
school at Stoke, Newington, England, 
where he remained until he was thirteen 
years old; was prepared for college by pri- 
vate tutors, and in 1826 entered the \'irginia 
University at Charlottesville. He made 
rapid progress in his studies, and was dis- 
tinguished for his scholarship, but was ex- 
pelled within a year for gambling, after 
which for several years he resided with his 
benefactor at Richmond. He then went to 
Baltimore, and in 1S29 published a 71 -page 
pamphlet called "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane 
and Minor Poems," which, however, at- 
tracted no attention and contained nothing 
of particular merit. In 1830 he was ad- 
mitted as a cadet at West Point, but was 
e.xpelled about a year later for irregulari- 
ties. Returning to the home of Mr. Allen 
he remained for some time, and finally 
quarrelled with his benefactor and enlisted 
as a private soldier in the U. S. armj", but 
remained only a short time. Soon after 
this, in 1833, Poe won several prizes for 
literary work, and as a result secured the 
position of editor of ttie "Southern Liter- 
ary Messenger," at Richmond, Virginia. 
Here he marri.td his cousin, Vn^ginia 
Clemm, who clung to him with fond devo- 
tion through all the many trials that came 
to them until her death in January, 1848. 
Poe remained with the "Messenger" for 
several years, writing meanwhile many 
tales, reviews, essays and poems. He aft- 
erward earned a precarious living by his 
pen in New York for a time; in 1839 be- 
came editor of "Burton's Gentleman's 
Magazine" ; in 1840 to 1842 was editor of 
" Graham's Magazine," and drifted around 
Irom one place to another, returning to 
New York in 1844. In 1845 his best 



known production, "The Raven," appeared 
in the " \\'hig Review," and gained him a 
reputation which is now almost world-wide. 
He then acted as editor and contributor on 
various magazines and periodicals until the 
death of his faithful wife in 1848. In the 
summer of 1849 he was engaged to be mar- 
ried to a lady of fortune in Richmond, Vir- 
ginia, and the day set for the wedding. 
He started for New York to make prepara- 
tions for the event, but, it is said, began 
drinking, was attacked with dilirium tre- 
mens in Baltimore and was removed to a 
hospital, where he died, October 7, 1849. 
The works of Edgar Allen Poe have been 
repeated!}' published since his death, both 
in Europe and America, and have attained 
an immense popularity. 



HORATIO GATES, one of the prom- 
inent figures in the American war for 
Independence, was not a native of the col- 
onies but was born in England in 1728. In 
early life he entered the British army and 
attained the rank of major. At the capture 
of Martinico he was aide to General Monk- 
ton and after the peace of Aix la Chapelle. 
in 1748, he was among the first troops that 
landed at Halifax. He was with Braddock 
at his defeat in 1755, and was there severe- 
ly wounded. At the conclusion of the 
French and Indian war Gates purchased an 
estate in \'irginia, and, resigning from the 
British army, settled down to life as a 
planter. On the breaking out of the Rev- 
olutionary war he entered the service of the 
colonies and was made adjutant-general of 
the Continental forces with the rank ol 
brigadier-general. He accompanied W'ash- 
I ington when he assumed the command ol 
' the army. In June, 1776, he was appoint- 
' ed to the command of the army of Canada, 
but was superseded in May of the following 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV. 



71 



year by General Schuyler. In August, 
1777, however, the command of that army 
was restored to General Gates and Septem- 
ber 19 he fought the battle of Bemis 
Heights. October 7, the same year, he 
won the battle of Stillwater, or Saratoga, 
and October 17 received the surrender of 
General Burgo3ne and his army, the pivotal 
poinT. of the war. This gave him a brilliant 
rcp"!tation. June 13, 17S0. General Gates 
was appointed to the command of the 
sou.hern military division, and August 16 of 
that year suffered defeat at the hands of 
Lord Cornwaliis, at Camden, North Car- 
olina. In December following he was 
superseded in the command by General 
Nathaniel Greene. 

On the signing of the peace treaty Gen- 
eral Gates retired to his plantation in 
Berkeley county, \'irginia, where he lived 
until 1790, when, emancipating all his 
slaves, he removed to New York City, where 
he resided until his death, April 10, 1S06. 



LYMAN J. GAGE.— When President Mc- 
Kinley selected Lyman J. Gage as sec- 
retary of the treasury he chose one of the 
most eminent financiers of the century. Mr. 
Gage was born June 28, 1836, at De Ruy- 
ter, Madison county, New York, and was of 
English descent. He went to Rome, New 
York, with his parents when he was ten 
years old, and received his early education 
in the Rome Academy. Mr. Gage gradu- 
ated from, the same, and his first position 
was that of a clerk in the post office. When 
he was fifteen years of age he was detailed 
as mail agent on the Rome & Watertown 
R. R. until the postmaster-general appointed 
regular agents for the route. In 1854, when 
he was in his eighteenth year, he entered 
the Oneida Central Bank at Rome as a 
junior clerk at a salary of one hundred dol- 



lars per year. Being unable at the end of 
one year and a half's service to obtain an 
increase in salary he determined to seek a 
wider field of labor. Mr. Gage set out in 
the fall of 1855 and arrived in Chicago, 
Illinois, on October 3, and soon obtained a 
situation in Nathan Cobb's lumber yard and 
planing mill. He remained there three j'ears 
as a bookkeeper, teamster, etc., and left on 
account of change in the management. But 
not being able to find anything else to do he 
accepted the position of night watchman in 
the place for a period of six weeks. He 
then became a bookkeeper for the Mer- 
chants Saving, Loan and Trust Company at 
a salary of five hundred dollars per year. 
He rapidly ad\anced in the service of this 
company and in 18GS he was made cashier. 
Mr. Gage was next offered the position of 
cashier of the First National Bank and ac- 
cepted the offer. He became the president 
of the First National Bank of Chicago Jan- 
uary 24, 1891, and in 1S97 he was appointed 
secretary of the treasury. Hi; ability as a 
financier and the prominent p^rt ne took in 
the discussion of financial aff--'rs vvhile presi- 
dent of the great Chicago b' : : . ave him a 
national reputation. 



ANDREW JACKSON, the seventh pres- 
ident of the United States, was born 
at the Waxhaw settlement, Union county, 
North Carolina, March 15, 1767. His 
parents were Scotch-Irish, natives of Carr- 
ickfergus, who came to this country in 1C65 
and settled on Twelve-Mile creek, a trib- 
utary of the Catawba. His father, who 
was a poor farm laborer, died shortly be- 
! fore Andrew's birth, when the mother re- 
I moved to Waxhaw, where some relatives 
; lived. Andrew's education was very limited, 
he showing no aptitude for stud}'. In 1780 
\ when but thirteen years of age, he and his 



72 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



brother Robert volunteered to serve in the 
American partisan troops under General 
Sumter, and witnessed the defeat at Hang- 
ing Rock. The following year the boys 
were both taken prisoners by the enemy 
and endured brutal treatment from the 
British officers while confined at Camden. 
They both took the small pox, when the 
mother procured their e.xchange but Robert 
died shortly after. The mother died in 
Charleston of ship fever, the same year. 

Young Jackson, now in destitute cir- 
cumstances, worked for about si.x months in 
a saddler's shop, and then turned school 
master, although but little fitted for the 
position. He now began to think of a pro- 
fession and at Salisbury, North Carolina, 
entered upon the study of law, but from all 
accounts gave but little attention to his 
books, being one of the most roistering, 
rollicking fellows in that town, indulging in 
many of the vices of his time. In 1786 he 
was admitted to the bar and in 1788 re- 
moved to Nashville, then in North Carolina, 
with the appointment of public prosecutor, 
then an office of little honor or emolument, 
but requiring much nerve, for which young 
Jackson was already noted. Two years 
later, when Tennessee became a territory 
he was appointed by Washington to the 
position of United States attorney for that 
district. In 1791 he married Mrs. Rachel 
Robards, a daughter of Colonel John Don- 
elson, who was supposed at the time to 
have been divorced from her former hus- 
band that year by act of legislature of Vir- 
ginia, but two years later, on finding that 
this divorce was not legal, and a new bill of 
separation being granted by the courts of 
Kentucky, they were remarried in 1793. 
This was used as a handle by his oppo- 
nents in the political campaign afterwards. 
Jackson was untiring in his efforts as United 



States attorney and obtained much influence. 
He was chosen a member of the Constitu- 
tional Convention of 1796, when Tennessee 
became a state and was its first represent- 
ative in congress. In 1797 he was chosen 
United States senator, but resigned the fol- 
lowing year to accept a seat on the supreme 
court of Tennessee which he held until 
1804. He was elected major-general of 
the militia of that state in 1801. In 1804, 
being unsuccessful in obtaining the govern- 
orship of Louisiana, the new territory, he 
retired from public life to the Hermitage, 
his plantation. On the outbreak of the 
war with Great Britain in 1 8 1 2 he tendered 
his services to the government and went to 
New Orleans with the Tennessee troops in 
Januar}', 181 3. In March of that year he 
was ordered to disband his troops, but later 
marched against the Cherokee Indians, de- 
feating them at Talladega, Emuckfaw 
and Tallapoosa. Having now a national 
reputation, he was appointed major-general 
in the United States army and was sent 
against the British in Florida. He con- 
ducted the defence of Mobile and seized 
Pensacola. He then went with his troops 
to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he gained 
the famous victory of Januarys, 181 5. In 
18 1 7-18 he conducted a war against the 
Seminoles, and in 1821 was made governor 
of the new territory of Florida. In 1823 
he was elected United States senator, but 
in 1 824 was the contestant with J. Q. Adams 
for the presidency. Four years later he 
was elected president, and served two terms. 
In 1832 he took vigorous action against the 
nullifiers of South Carolina, and the next 
year removed the public money from the 
United States bank. During his second 
term the national debt was extinguished. At 
the close of his administration he retired to 
the Hermitage, where he died June 8, 1845. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArilT. 



78 



ANDREW CARNEGIE.thelargest manu- 
facturer of pig-iron, steel rails and 
coke in the world, well deserves a place 
among America's celebrated men. He was 
born November 25, 1S35, at Dunfermline, 
Scotland, and emigrated to the United States 
with his father in 1845, settling in Pittsburg. 
Two jears later Mr. Carnegie began his 
business career by attending a small station- 
ary engine. This work did not suit him and 
he became a telegraph messenger with the 
Atlantic and Ohio Co., and later he became 
an operator, and was one of the first to read 
telegraphic signals by sound. Mr. Carnegie 
was afterward sent to the Pittsburg office 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., as clerk 
to the superintendent and manager of the 
telegraph lines. While in this position he 
made the acquaintance of Mr. Woodruff, the 
inventor of the sleeping-car. Mr. Carnegie 
immediately became interested and was one 
of the organizers of the company for its con- 
struction after the railroad had adopted it, 
and the success of this venture gave him the 
nucleus of his wealth. He was promoted 
to the superintendency of the Pittsburg 
division of the Pennsylvania Railroad and 
about this time was one of the syndicate 
that purchased the Storey farm on Oil Creek 
which cost forty thousand dollars and in one 
year it yielded over one million dollars in 
cash dividends. Mr. Carnegie later was as- 
sociated with others in establishing a rolling- 
mill, and from this has grown the most ex- 
tensive and complete system of iron and 
steel industries ever controlled by one indi- 
vidual, embracing the Edgar Thomson 
Steel Works; Pittsburg Bessemer Steel 
Works; Lucy Furnaces; Union Iron Mills; 
Union Mill; Keystone Bridge Works; Hart- 
man Steel Works; Frick Coke Co.; Scotia 
Ore Mines. Besides directing his immense 
iron industries he owned eighteen English 



newspapers which he ran in the interest oi 
tho Radicals. He has also devoted large 
sums of money to benevolent and educational 
purposes. In 1879 he erected commodious 
swimming baths for the people of Dunferm- 
line, Scotland, and in the following year 
gave forty thousand dollars for a free library. 
Mr. Carnegie gave fifty thousand dollars to 
Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1884 
to found what is now called "Carnegie Lab- 
oratory," and in 1885 gave five hundred 
thousand dollars to Pittsbufg for a public 
library. He also gave two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars for a music hall and library 
in Allegheny City in 1886, and two hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars to Edinburgh, Scot- 
land, for a free library. He also established 
free libraries at Braddock, Pennsylvania, 
and other places for the benefit of his em- 
ployes. He also published the following 
works, "An American Four-in-hand in 
Britain;" " Round the World;" "Trium- 
phant Democracy; or Fifty Years' March of 
the Republic." 



GEORGE H. THOMAS, the " Rock of 
Chickamauga," one of the best known 
commanders during the late Civil war, was 
born in Southampton county, Virginia, July 
31, 1 8 16, his paj^ents being of Welsh and 
French origin respectively. In 1836 young 
Thomas was appointed a cadet at the Mili- 
tary Academy, at West Point, from which 
he graduated in 1840, and was promoted to 
the office of second lieutenant in the Third 
Artillery. Shortly after, with his company, 
he went to Florida, where he served for two 
years against the Seminole Indians. In 
1 84 1 he was brevetted first lieutenant for 
gallant conduct. He remained in garrison 
in the south and southwest until 1845, at 
which date with the regiment he joined the 
army under General Taylor, and participat' 



74 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV 



ed ir the defense of Fort Brown, the storm- 
ing of Monterej' and the battle of Buena 
Vista. After the latter eve;it he remained 
in garrison, now brevetted major, until the 
close of the Mexican war. After a year 
spent in Florida, Captain Thiomas was or- 
dered to West Point, where he served as in- 
structor until 1854. He then was trans- 
ferred to California. In May, 1S55, Thom- 
as was appointed major of the Second Cav- 
alry, with whom he spent five years in Texas. 
Although a southern man, and surrounded 
by brother officers who all were afterwards 
•n the Confederate service. Major Thomas 
never swerved from his allegiance to the 
government. A. S. Johnston was the col- 
onel of the regiment, R. E. Lee the lieuten- 
ant-colonel, and W. J. Hardee, senior ma- 
jor, while among the j'ounger officers were 
Hood, Fitz Hugh Lee, Van Dorn and Kirby 
Smith. When these officers left the regi- 
ment to take up arms for the (Confederate 
cause he remained with it, and April 17th, 
1 86 1, crossed the Potomac into his native 
state, at its head. After taking an active part 
in the opening scenes of the war on the Poto- 
mac and Shenandoah, in August, 1861, he 
was promoted to be brigadier-general and 
transferred to the Army of the Cumberland. 
January 19-20, 1862, Thomas defeated 
Crittenden at Mill Springs, and this brought 
him into notice and laid the foundation of 
his fame. He continued in command of his 
division until September 20, 1S62, except 
during the Corinth campaign when he com- 
manded the right wing of the Arm\' of the 
Tennessee. He was in command of the 
latter at the battle of Perryville, also, Octo- 
ber 8, 1862. 

On the division of the Army of the Cum- 
berland into corps, January 9, 1863, Gen- 
eral Thomas was assigned to the command 
of the Fourteenth, and at the battle of Chick- 



amauga, after the retreat of Rosecrans, 
firmly held his own against the hosts of Gen- 
eral Bragg. A history of his services from 
that on would be a history of the war in the 
southwest. On September 27, 1864, Gen- 
eral Thomas was given command in Ten- 
nessee, and after organizing his army, de- 
feated General Hood in the battle of Nash- 
ville, December 15 and 16, 1864. Much 
complaint was made before this on account 
of what they termed Thomas' slowness, and 
he was about to be superseded because he 
would not strike until he got ready, but 
when the blow was struck General Grant 
was the first to place on record this vindica- 
tion of Thomas' judgment. He received a 
vote of thanks from Congress, and from the 
legislature of Tennessee a gold medal. Af- 
ter the close of the war General Thomas 
had command of several of the military di- 
visions, and died at San Francisco, Cali- 
fornia, March 28, 1870. 



GEORGE BANCROFT, one of the most 
eminent American historians, was a 
nativeof Massachusetts, born at \\'orcester, 
October 3, 1800, and a son of Aaron 
Bancroft, D. D. The father, Aaron Ban- 
croft, was born at Reading, Massachusetts, 
November 10, 1755. He graduated at 
Harvard in 1778, became a minister, and for 
half a centurj' was rated as one of the ablest 
preachers in New England. He was also a 
prolific writer and published a number of 
works among which was ' ' Life of George 
Washington." Aaron Bancroft died August 

19. iS39- 

The subject of our present biography, 
George Bancroft, graduated at Harvard in 
1817, and the following year entered the 
University of Gottingen, where he studied 
history and philology under the most emi- 
nent teachers, and in 1820 received the de- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



Y5 



{jree of doctor of philosophj- at Gottingen. 
Upon his return home he published a volume 
of poems, and later a translation of Heeren's 
"Reflections on the Politics of Ancient 
Greece." In 1834 he produced the first 
volume of his " History of the United 
States," this being followed bj- other vol- 
umes at different intervals later. This was 
i^is greatest work and ranks as the highest 
authority, taking its place among the great- 
est of American productions. 

George Bancroft was appointed secretarj' 
of the navy by President Polk in 1845, but 
resigned in 1846 and became minister pleni- 
potentiarj' to England. In 1849 he retired 
from public life and took up his residence at 
Washington, D. C. In 1867 he was ap- 
pointed United States minister to the court of 
Berlin and negotiated the treaty by which Ger- 
mans coming to the United States were re- 
leased from their allegiance to the govern- 
ment of their native land. In 1871 he was 
minister plenipotentiary to the German em- 
pire and served until 1874. The death of 
George Bancroft occurred January 17, 1891. 



GEORGE GORDON MEADE, a fa- 
mous Union general, was born at 
Cadiz, Spain, December 30, 1S15, his father 
being United States naval agent at that 
port. After receiving a good education he 
entered the West Point Military Academy 
in 1 83 1. From here he was graduated 
June 30, 1835, and received the rank of 
second lieutenant of artillery. He par- 
ticipated in the Seminole war, but resigned 
from the army in October, 1836. He en- 
tered upon the profession of civil engineer, 
which he followed for several years, part of 
the time in the service of the government in 
making surveys of the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi river. His report and results of some 
e.xperiments made by him in this service 



gained Meade much credit. He alsu -jvas 
employed in surveying the boundary Im? of 
Te.xas and the northeastern boundary line 
between the United States and Canada. 
In 1S42 he was reappointed in the arn y to 
the position of second lieutenant of engineers. 
During the Mexican war he served with dis- 
tinction on the staff of General Taylor in 
the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Paltna 
and the storming of Monterey. He received 
his brevet of first lieutenant for the latter 
action. In 1851 he was made full first 
lieutenant in his corps; a captain in 1856, 
and major soon after. At the close of tha 
war with Mexico he was employed in light- 
house construction and in geodetic surveys 
until the breaking out of the Rebellion, in 
which he gained great reputation. In 
August, 1 861 , he was made brigadier-general 
of volunteers and placed in command of the 
second brigade of the Penns3'lvania Reserves, 
a division of the First Corps in the Army of 
the Potomac. In the campaign of 1862, 
under McClellan, Meade took an active 
part, being present at the battles of Mechan- 
icsville, Gaines' Mill and Glendale, in the 
latter of which he was severely wounded. 
On rejoining his command he was given a 
division and distinguished himself at its head 
in the battles of South Mountain and Antie- 
tam. During the latter, on the wounding 
of General Hooker, Meade was placed in 
command of the corps and was himself 
slightly wounded. For services he was 
promoted, November, 1862, to the rank 
of major-general of volunteers. On the 
recovery of General Hooker General Meade 
returned to his division and in December, 
1862, at Fredericksburg, led an attack 
which penetrated Lee's right line and swept 
to his rear. Being outnumbered and un- 
supported, he finally was driven back. The 
same month Meade was assiirned to the 



76 



COMPEXDIUM OF DIOGRAPHT. 



command of the Fifth Corps, and at Chan- 
cellorsville in May, 1863, his sagacity and 
ability so struck General Hooker that when 
the latter asked to be relieved of the com- 
mand, in June of the same year, he nomi- 
nated Meade as his successor. June 28, 
1863, President Lincoln commissioned Gen- 
eral Meade commander-in-chief of the Army 
of the Potomac, then scattered and moving 
hastily through Pennsylvania to the great 
and decisive battlefield at Gettysburg, at 
which he was in full command. With the 
victory on those July days the name of 
Meade will ever be associated. From that 
time until the close of the war he com- 
manded the Army of the Potomac. In 
1864 General Grant, being placed at the 
head of all the armies, took up his quarters 
with the Army of the Potomac. From that 
time until the surrender of Lee at Appo- 
matox Meade's ability shone conspicuously, 
and his tact in the delicate position in lead- 
ing his army under the eye of his superior 
officer commanded the respect and esteem 
of General Grant. For services Meade was 
promoted to the rank of major-general, and 
on the close of hostilities, in July, 1865, 
was assigned to the command of the military 
division of the Atlantic, with headquarters 
at Philadelphia. This post he held, with 
the exception of a short period on detached 
duty in Georgia, until his death, which took 
place November 6, 1872. 



D.AVID CROCKETT was a noted hunter 
and scout, and also one of the earliest 
of American humorists. He was born Au- 
gust 17, 1786, in Tennessee, and was one 
of the most prominent men of his locality, 
serving as representative in congress from 
1827 until 1 83 1. He attracted consider- 
able notice while a member of congress and 
was closely associated with General Jack- 



son, of whom he was a personal fiiend. Kc 
went to Texa5 and enlisted in the Texan 
army at the time of the revolt of Texas 
against Mexico and gained a wide reputa- 
tion as a scout. He was one of the famous 
one hundred and forty men under Colonel 
W. B. Travis who were besieged in Fort 
Alamo, near San Antonio, Texas, by Gen- 
eral Santa Anna with some five thousand 
Mexicans on February 23, 1S36. The fort 
was defended for ten days, frequent assaults 
being repelled with great slaughter, over 
one thousand Mexicans being killed or 
wounded, while not a man in the fort was 
injured. Finally, on March 6, three as- 
saults were made, and in the hand-to-hand 
fight that followed the last, the Texans were 
wofully outnumbered and overpowered. 
They fought desperately with clubbed mus- 
kets till only six were left alive, including 
W. B. Travis, David Crockett and James 
Bowie. These surrendered under promise 
of protection; but when they were brought 
before Santa Anna he ordered them all to 
be cut to pieces. 



HENRY WATTERSON, one of the most 
conspicuous figures in the history of 
American journalism, was born at Wash- 
ington, District of Columbia, February 16, 
1840. His boyhood days were mostly spent 
in the city of his birth, where his father, 
Harvey M. Watterson, was editor of the 
"Union," a well known journal. 

Owing to a weakness of the eyes, which 
interfered with a systematic course of study, 
young Watterson was educated almost en- 
tirely at home. A successful college career 
was out of the question, but he acquired a 
good knowledge of music, literature and art 
from private tutors, but the most valuable 
part of the training he received was by as- 
sociating with his father and the throng o\ 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArHT. 



77 



public men whom he met in Washington 
in the stirring days immediately preceding 
the Civil war. He began his journalistic 
career at an early age as dramatic and 
musical critic, and in 1S5S, became editor 
of the "Democratic Review" and at the 
same time contributed to the "States," 
a journal of liberal opinioiis published in 
Washington. In this he remained until 
the breaking out of the war, when the 
"States," opposing the administration, was 
suppressed, and young Watterson removed 
to Tennessee. He ne.xt appears as editor 
of the Nashville "Republican Banner," the 
most influential paper in the state at that 
time. After the occupation of Nashville by 
the Federal troops, Watterson served as a 
volunteer staf? officer in the Confederate 
service until the close of the war, with the 
exception of a year spent in editing the 
Chattanooga "Rebel." On the close of 
the war he returned to Nashville and re- 
sumed his connection with the "Banner." 
After a trip to Europe he assumed control 
of the Louisville "Journal," which he soon 
combined with the "Courier" and the 
"Democrat" of that place, founding the 
well-known "Courier-Journal," the first 
number of which appeared November 8, 
1868. Mr. Watterson also represented his 
district in congress for several years. 



PATRICK SARSFIELD GILMORE. 
one of the most successful and widely 
known bandmasters and musicians of the 
last half centurj- in America, was born in 
Ballygar, Ireland, on Christmas day, 1829. 
He attended a public school until appren- 
ticed to a wholesale merchant at Athlone, 
of the brass band of which town he soon 
became a member. His passion for music 
conflicting with the duties of a mercantile 
life, his position as clerk was exchanged for 



that of musical instructor to the young sons 
of his employer. At the age of nineteen he 
sailed for America and two days after his 
arrival in Boston was put in charge of the 
band instrument department of a prominent 
music house. In the interests of the pub- 
lications of this house he organized a minstrel 
company known as "Ordway's Eolians," 
with which he first achieved success as a 
cornet soloist. Later on he was called the 
best E-flat cornetist in the United States. 
He became leader, successively, of the Suf- 
folk, Boston Brigade and Salem bands. 
During his connection with the latter he 
inaugurated the famous Fourth of July con- 
certs on Boston Common, since adopted as 
a regular programme for the celebration of 
Independence Day. In 1S58 Mr. Gilmore 
founded the organization famous thereafter 
as Gilmore's Band. At the outbreak of the 
Civil war this band was attached to the 
Twenty-Fourth , Massachusetts Infantry. 
Later, when the economical policy of dis- 
pensing with music had proved a mistake, 
Gilmore was entrusted with the re-organiza- 
tion of state military bands, and upon his 
arrival at New Orleans with his own band 
was made bandmaster-general by General 
Banks. On the inauguration of Governor 
Hahn, later on, in Lafajette square. New 
Orleans, ten thousand children, mostly of 
Confederate parents, rose to the baton of 
Gilmore and, accompanied by six hundred 
instruments, thirty-six guns and the united 
fire of three regiments of infantry, sang the 
Star-Spangled Banner, America and other 
patriotic Union airs. In June, 1867, Mr. 
Gilmore conceived a national musical festi- 
val, which was denounced as a chimerical 
undertaking, but he succeeded and June 15, 
1869, stepped upon the stage of the Boston 
Colosseum, a vast structure erected for the 
occasion, and in the presence of over fifty 



78 



COMPENDICM or BIOGRAPHT, 



thousand people lifted his baton over an 
orchestra of one thousand and a chorus of 
ten thousand. On the 17th of June, 1872, 
he opened a still greater festival in Boston, 
when, in addition to an orchestra of two 
thousand and a chorus of twenty thousand, 
were present the Band of the Grenadier 
Guards, of London, of the Garde Repub- 
licaine, of Paris, of Kaiser Franz, of Berlin, 
and one from Dublin, Ireland, together with 
Johann Strauss, Franz Abt and many other 
soloists, vocal and instrumental. Gilmore's 
death occurred September 24, 1S92. 



MARTIN VAN BUREN was the eighth 
president of the United States, 1837 
to 1 84 1. He was of Dutch extraction, and 
his ancestors were among the earliest set- 
tlers on the banks of the Hudson. He was 
born December 5, 1782, at Kinderhook, 
New York. Mr. Van Buren took up the 
study of law at the age of fourteen and took 
an active part in political matters before he 
had attained his majority. He commenced 
the practice of law in 1S03 at his native 
town, and in 1809 he removed to Hudson, 
Columbia county, New York, where he 
spent seven years gaining strength and wis- 
dom from his contentions at the bar with 
some of the ablest men of the profession. 
Mr. Van Buren was elected to the state 
senate, and from 181 5 until 1S19 he was at- 
torney-general of the state. He was re- 
elected to the senate in 18 16, and in 1818 
he was one of the famous clique of politi- 
cians known as the "Albany regency." 
Mr. Van Buren was a member of the con- 
vention for the revision of the state consti- 
tution, in 1821. In the same year he was 
elected to the United States senate and 
served his term in a manner that caused his 
re-election to that body in 1827, but re- I 
signed the following year as he had been 



elected governor of New York. Mr. Van 
Buren was appointed by President Jackson as 
secretary of state in March, 1S29, but resigned 
in 1 83 1, and during the recess of congress 
he was appointed minister to England. 
The senate, however, when it convened in 
December refused to ratify theappointrnent. 
In May, 1832, he was nominated by the 
Democrats as their candidate for vice-presi- 
dent on the ticket with Andrew Jackson, 
and he was elected in the following Novem- 
ber. He received the nomination to suc- 
ceed President Jackson in 1836, as the 
Democratic candidate, and in the electoral 
college he received one hundred and seventy 
votes out of two hundred and eighty-three, 
and was inaugurated March 4, 1837. His 
administration was begun at a time of great 
business depression, and unparalied financial 
distress, which caused the suspension of 
specie payments by the banks. Near!}' 
every bank in the country was forced to 
suspend specie payment, and no less than 
two hundred and fifty-four business houses 
failed in New York in one week. The 
President urged the adoption of the inde- 
pendent treasury idea, which passed through 
the senate twice but each time it was de- 
feated in the house. However the meas ire 
ultimately became a law near the close of 
President \'an Buren's term of office. .\n- 
other important measure that was passed 
was the pre-emption law that gave the act- 
ual settlers preference in the purchase of 
public lands. The question of slavery had 
begun to assume great preponderance dur- 
ing this administration, and a great conllict 
was tided over by the passage of a resolu- 
tion that prohibited petitions or papers that 
in any way related to slavery to be acted 
upon. In the Democratic convention ot 
1840 President Van Buren secured the 
nomination for re-election on that ticket 



coMPExniiwr of BiocRAPin- 



79 



without opposition, but in the election he 
only received the votes of seven states, his 
opponent, W. H. Harrison, being elected 
preside, t. In 1848 Mr. Van Buren was 
the candidate of the " Free-Soilers," but 
was unsuccessful. .\fter this he retired 
from public life and spent the remainder of 
his life on his estate at Kinderhook, where 
he died July 24, 1862. 



W INFIELD SCOTT, a distinguished 
American general, was born June 13. 
1786, near Petersburg, Dinwiddie county, 
Virginia, and was educated at the William 
and Mary College. He studied law and was 
admitted to the bar, and in 1S08 he accepted 
an appointment as captain of light artillery, 
and was ordered to New Orleans. In June, 

181 2, he was promoted to be lieutenant- 
colonel, and on application was sent to the 
frontier, and reported to General Smyth, 
near Buffalo. He was made adjutant-gen- 
eral with the rank of a colonel, in March, 

1 8 1 3, and the same month attained the colo- 
nelcy of his regiment. He participated in 
the principal battles of the war and was 
wounded many times, and at the close of 
the war he was voted a gold medal by con- 
gress for his services. He was a writer of 
considerable merit on military topics, and 
he gave to the military science, "General 
Regulations of the .Army " and " System of 
Infantry and Rifle Practice." He took a 
prominent part in the Black Hawk war, 
and at the beginning of the Mexican war he 
was appointed to take the command of the 
army. Gen. Scott immediately assembled 
his. troops at Lobos Island from which he 
moved by transports to Vera Cruz, which 
he took March 29, 1847, and rapidly fol- 
lowed up his first success. He fought the 
battles of Cerro Gordo and Jalapa, both of ; 
which he won, and proceeded to Pueblo j 



where he was preceded by Worth's division 
which had taken the town and waited for the 
coming of Scott. The army was forced to 
wait here for supplies, and August 7th, 
General Scott started on his victorious 
march to the city of Mexico with ten thou- 
sand, seven hundred and thirty-eight men. 
The battles of Contreras, Cherubusco and 
San Antonio were fought August 19-20. 
and on the 24th an armistice was agreed 
upon, but as the commissioners could not 
agree on the terms of settlement, the fight- 
ing was renewed at Molino Del Rey, and 
the Heights of Chapultepec were carried 
by the victorious army of General Scott. 
He gave the enemy no respite, however, 
and vigorously followed up his advantages. 
On September 14, he entered the City of 
Mexico and dictated the terms of surrender 
in the very heart of the Mexican Republic. 
General Scott was offered the presidency of 
the Mexican Republic, but declined. Con- 
gress extended him a vote of thanks and 
ordered a gold medal be struck in honor of 
his generalship and bravery. He was can- 
didate for the presidency on the Whig plat- 
form but was defeated. He was honored by 
having the title of lieutenant-general con- 
ferred upon him in 1855. .At the beginning of 
the Civil war he was too infirm to take charge 
of the army, but did signal service in be- 
half of the government. He retired from 
the service November i, 1861, and in 1S64 
he published his ".Autobiography." Gen- 
eral Scott died at West Point, May 29, 1866 



EDWARD EVERETT HALE for many 
years occupied a high place among the 
most honored of .America's citizens. As 
a preacher he ranks among the foremost 
in the New England states, but to the gen- 
eral public he is best known through his 
writings. Born in Boston, Mass., April 3, 



so 



COMPEXDILM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1822, a descendant of one of the most 
prominent New England families, he enjoyed 
in his youth many of the advantages denied 
the majority of boys. He received his pre- 
paratory schooHng at the Boston Latin 
School, after which he finished his studies at 
Harvard where he was graduated with high 
honors in 1839. Having studied theology 
at home, Mr. Hale embraced the ministry 
and in 1846 became pastor of a Unitarian 
-church in Worcester, Massachusetts, a post 
which he occupied about ten years. He 
then, in 1856, became pastor of the South 
Congregational church in Boston, over which 
he presided many years. 

Mr. Hale also found time to write a 
great many literary works of a high class. 
.\mong many other well-known productions 
?f his are " The Rosary," " Margaret Per- 
cival in America." "Sketches of Christian 
:iistory," "Kansas and Nebraska," " Let- 
,:ers on Irish Emigration," " Ninety Days' 
Worth of Europe," " If, Yes, and Perhaps," 
"Ingham Papers," "Reformation," "Level 
Best and Other Stories, " ' ' Ups and Downs, " 
"Christmas Eve and Christmas Day," " In 
His Name," "Our New Crusade," "Work- 
ingmen's Homes," " Bojs' Heroes," etc., 
etc., besides many others which might be 
mentioned. One of his works, " In His 
Name," has earned itself enduring fame by 
the good deeds it has called forth. The 
numerous associations known as ' 'The King's 
Daughters," which has accomplished much 
good, owe their existence to the story men- 
tioned. 

DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT stands 
pre-eminent as one of the greatest na- 
val officers of the world. He was born at 
Campbell's Station, East Tennessee, July 
5, 1 801, and entered the navy of the United 
States as a midshipman. He had the good 



fortune to serve under Captain David Por- 
ter, who commanded the " Essex," and by 
whom he was taught the ideas of devotion 
to duty from which he never swerved dur- 
ing all his career. In 1823 Mr. Farragut 
took part m a severe fight, the result of 
which was the suppression of piracj' in the 
West Indies. He then entered upon the 
regular duties of his profession which was 
only broken into by a year's residence with 
Charles Folsom, our consul at Tunis, who 
was afterwards a distinguished professor at 
Harvard. Mr. Farragut was one of the best 
linguists in the navy. He had risen through 
the different grades of the service mitil the 
war of 1861-65 found him a captain resid- 
ing at Norfolk, Virginia. He removed with 
his family to Hastings, on the Hudson, and 
hastened to offer his services to the Federal 
government, and as the capture of New 
Orleans had been resolved upon, Farragut 
was chosen to command the expedition. 
His force consisted of the West Gulf block- 
ading squadron and Porter's mortar flotilla. 
In January, 1862, he hoisted his pennant at 
the mizzen peak of the "Hartford" at 
Hampton roads, set sail from thence on the 
3rd of February and reached Ship Island on 
the 20th of the same month. A council of 
war was held on the 20th of April, in which 
it was decided that whatever was to be done 
must be done quickly. The signal was made 
from the flagship and accordingly the fleet 
weighed anchor at 1:55 on the morning of 
April 24th, and at 3:30 the whole force was 
under way. The history of this brilliant strug- 
gle is well known, and the glory of it made Far- 
ragut a hero and also made him rear admir- 
al. In the summer of 1862 he ran the batteries 
at \'icksburg, and on March 14. 1863. he 
passed through the fearful and destructive 
fire from Poit Hudson, and opened up com- 
munication with Flag-officer Porter, who 



CO.VPEXD/L'M OF BIOGRAPlir. 



8a 



had control of the upper Mississippi. On 
May 24th he commenced active operations 
against that fort in conjunction with the army 
and it fell on July 9th. Mr. Farragut filled 
the measure of his fame on the 5th of Au- 
gust, 1864, by his great victory, the capture 
of Mobile Bay and the destruction of the 
Confederate fleet, including the formidable 
ram Tennessee. For this victory the rank 
of admiral was given to Mr. Farragut. He 
died at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Au- 
gust 4, 1870. 

GEORGE W. CHILDS, a philanthropist 
whose remarkable personalit}' stood 
for the best and highest type of American 
citizenship, and whose whole life was an 
object lesson in noble living, was born in 
1829 at Baltimore, Maryland, of humble 
parents, and spent his early life in unremit- 
ting toil. He was a self-made man in the 
fullest sense of the word, and gained his 
great wealth by his own efforts. He was a 
man of very great influence, and this, in 
conjunction with his wealth, would have 
been, in the hands of other men, a means of 
getting them political preferment, but Mr. 
Childs steadily declined any suggestions that 
would bring him to figure prominently in 
public affairs. He did not choose to found 
a financial dynasty, but devoted all his 
powers to the helping of others, with the 
most enlightened beneficence and broadest 
sympathy. Mr. Childs once remarked tiiat 
his greatest pleasure in life was in doing 
good to others. He always despised mean- 
ness, and one of his objects of life was to 
prove that a man could be liberal and suc- 
cessful at the same time. Upon these lines 
Mr. Childs made a name for himself as the 
director of one of the representative news- 
papers of America, "The Philadelphia Pub- 
he I.edger, " which was owned joint! v by 



himself and the Dre.xel estate, and which he 
edited for thirty years. He acquired con- 
trol of the paper at a time when it was be- 
ing published at a heavy loss, set it upon a 
firm basis of prosperity, and he made it 
more than a money- making machine — he 
made it respected as an e.xponent of the 
best side of journalism, and it stands as a 
monument to his sound judgment and up- 
right business principles. Mr. Childs' char- 
itable repute brought him many applications 
for assistance, and he never refused to help 
any one that was deserving of aid; and not 
only did he help those who asked, but he 
would by careful inquiry find those who 
needed aid but were too proud to solicit it. 
He was a considerable employer of labor 
and his liberality was almost unparalleled. 
The death of this great and good man oc- 
curred February 3d, 1894. 



PATRICK HENRY won his way to un 
dying fame in the annals of the early 
history of the United States by introducing 
into the house of burgesses his famous reso- 
lution against the Stamp Act, which he car- 
ried through, after a stormy debate, by a 
majority of one. At this time he exclaimed 
" Cassar had his Brutus, Charles I his Crom- 
well and George HI " (here he was inter- 
rupted by cries of " treason ") " may profit 
by their example. If this be treason make 
the most of it." 

Patrick Henry was born at Studiey, 
Hanover county, Virginia, May 29, 173G, 
and was a son of Colonel John Henry, a 
magistrate and school teacher of Aberdeen, 
Scotland, and a nephew of Robertson, the 
historian. He received his education from 
his father, and was married at the age of 
eighteen. He was twice bankrupted before 
he had reached his twenty-fourth year, wnen 
after six weeks of study he was admitted to 



84 



coMPEXD/r.\r or BiOGRAPin: 



the bar. He worked for three years with- 
out a case and finally was applauded for his 
plea for the people's rights and gained im- 
mense popularity. After his famous Stamp 
Act resolution he was the leader of the pa- 
triots in Virginia. In 1769 he was admitted 
to practice in the general courts and speed- 
ily won a fortune by his distinguished ability 
as a speaker. He was the first speaker of 
the General Congress at Philadelphia in 
1774. He was for a time a colonel of 
militiain 1775, and from 1776 to 1779 and 
1 78 1 to 1786 he was governor of Virginia. 
For a number of years he retired from pub- 
lic life and was tendered and declined a 
number of important political offices, and in 
March, 1789, he was elected state senator 
but aid not take his seat on account of his 
death which occurred at Red Hill, Charlotte 
county, Virginia, June 6, 1799. 



BENEDICT ARNOLD, an American 
general and traitor of the Revolution- 
ary war, is one of the noted characters in 
American history. He was born in Nor- 
wich, Connecticut, January 3, 1740. He 
ran away and enlisted in the army when 
young, but deserted in a short time. He 
then became a merchant at New Haven, 
Connecticut, but failed. In 1775 he was 
commissioned colonel in the Massachusetts 
militia, and in the autumn of that year was 
placed in command of one thousand men 
for the invasion of Canada. He marched 
nis army through the forests of Maine and 
joined General Montgomery before Quebec. 
Their combined forces attacked that city on 
December 31, 1775, and Montgomery was 
killed, and Arnold, severely wounded, was 
compelled to retreat and endure a rigorous 
winter a few miles from the city, where they 
were at the mercy of the Canadian troops 
bad they cared to attack them. On his re- 



turn he was raised to the rank of brigadier- 
general. He was given command of a small 
flotilla on Lake Champlain, with which he 
encountered an immense force, and though 
defeated, performed many deeds of valor. 
He resented the action of congress in pro- 
moting a number of his fellow officers and 
neglecting himself. In 1777 he was made 
major-general, and under General Gates at 
Bemis Heights fought valiantly. For some 
reason General Gates found fault with his 
conduct and ordered him under arrest, and 
he was kept in his tent until the battle of 
Stillwater was waxing hot, when Arnold 
mounted his horse and rode to the front of 
his old troop, gave command to charge, and 
rode like a mad man into the thickest of 
the fight and was not overtaken by Gates' 
courier until he had routed the enemy and 
fell wounded. Upon his recovery he was 
made general, and was placed in command 
at Philadelphia. Here he married, and his 
acts of rapacity soon resulted in a court- 
martial. He was sentenced to be repri- 
manded by the commander-in-chief, and 
though Washington performed this duty 
with utmost delicacy and consideration, it 
was never forgiven. Arnold obtained com- 
mand at West Point, the most important 
post held by the Americans, in 1780, and 
immediately offered to surrender it to Sir 
Henry Clinton, British commandsr at TJew 
York. Major Andre was sent to arrange 
details with Arnold, but on his return trip 
to New York he was captured by Americans, 
the plot was detected, and Andre suffered 
the death penalty as a spy. Arnold es- 
caped, and was paid about $40,000 by the 
British for his treason and was made briga- 
dier-general. He afterward commanded an 
expedition that plundered a portion of \'ir- 
ginia, and another that burned New Lon- 
don, Connecticut, and captured Fort Truin- 



I 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



85 



bull, the commandant of which Arnold mur- 
dered with the sword he had just surren- 
dered. He passed the latter part of his life 
in England, universally despised, and died 
in London June 14, iSoi. 



ROBERT G. IXGERSOLL, one of the 
most brilHant orators that America has 
produced, also a law3'er of considerable 
merit, won most of his fame as a lecturer. 
Mr. Ingersoll was born Auj;ust 24, 1S33, 
at Dr\den, Gates county, New York, and 
recei\cdhiseducation in the common schools. 
He went west at the age of twehe, and for 
a short time he attended an academy in 
Tennessee, and also taught school in that 
state. He bigan the practice of law in the 
southern part of Illinois in 1S54. Colonel 
Ii^gcrsoH's principal fame was made in 
the lecture room by his lectures in which he 
ridiculed religious faith and creeds and criti- 
cised the Bible and the Christian religion. 
He was the orator of the day in the Decora- 
tion Day celebration in the city of New York 
in 1882 and his oration was widely com- 
mended. He first attracted political notice 
in the convention at Cincinnati in 1876 by 
his brilliant eulogy on James G. Blaine. He 
practiced law in Peoria, Illinois, for a num- 
ber of years, but later located in the city of 
New York. He published the follow- 
ing: "The Gods and other Lectures;" "The 
Ghosts;" "Some Mistakes of Moses;" 
"What Shall I Do To Be Saved;" "Inter- 
views on Talmage and Presbyterian Cate- 
chism ;" The "North .-Vmerican Review 
Controversy;" "Prose Poems;" " A Vision 
of War ; ' etc. 



JOSEPH ECCLESTON JOHNSTON, 
a noted general in the Confederate army, 
was born in Prince Edward county. \'irginia, 
in 1S07. He graduated from West Point 



and entered the army in 1829. For a num- 
ber of years his chief service was garrison 
duty. He saw active service, however, in 
the Seminole war in Florida, part of the 
time as a staff officer of General Scott. He 
resigned his commission in 1S37, but re- 
turned to the army a year later, and was 
brevetted captain for gallant services in 
Florida. He was made first lieutenant of 
topographical engineers, and was engaged 
in river and harbor improvements and also 
in the survey of the Te.xas boundary and 
the nortiiern boundary of the United 
States until the beginning of the war 
with Mexico. He was at the siege of Vera 
Cruz, and at the battle of Cerro Gordo was 
wounded while reconnoitering the enemy's 
position, after which he was brevetted major 
and colonel. He was in all the battles about 
the city of Me.xico, and was again wounded 
in the final assault upon that city. After 
the Mexican war closed he returned to duty 
as captain of topographical engineers, but 
in 1855 he was made lieutenant-colonel of 
cavalry and did frontier duty, and was ap- 
pointed inspector-general of the expedition 
to Utah. In 1S60 he was appointed quar- 
termaster-general with rank of brigadier- 
general. At the outbreak of hostilities in 
1 86 1 he resigned his commission and re- 
ceived the appointment of major-general of 
the Confederate army. He held Harper's 
Ferry, and later fought General Patterson 
about Winchester. At the battle of Bull 
Run he declined command in favor of Beau- 
regard, and acted under that general's direc- 
tions. He commanded the Confederates in 
the famous Peninsular campaign, and was 
severely wounded at Fair Oaks and was 
succeeded in command by General Lee. 
Upon his recovery he was made lieutenant- 
general and assigned to the command of the 
southwestern department. He attempted 



86 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRArilT. 



to raise the siege of Vicksburg, and was 
finally defeated at Jackson, Mississippi. 
Having been made a general he succeeded 
General Bragg in command of the army of 
Tennessee and was ordered to check General 
Sherman's advance upon Atlanta. Not 
daring to risk a battle with the overwhelm- 
ing forces of Sherman, he slowly retreated 
toward Atlanta, and was relieved of com- 
mand by President Davis and succeeded by 
General Hood. Hood utterly destroyed his 
own army by three furious attacks upon 
Sherman. Johnston was restored to com- 
mand in the Carolinas, and again faced 
Sherman, but was defeated in several en- 
gagements and continued a slow retreat 
toward Richmond. Hearing of Lee's sur- 
render, he communicated with General 
Sherman, and finally surrendered his army 
at Durham, North Carolina, April 26, 1865. 
General Johnston was elected a member 
of the forty-si.xth congress and was ap- 
pointed United States railroad commis- 
sioner in 1885. His death occurred March 
21, 1891. 

SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS, 
known throughout the civilized world 
as "Mark Twain," is recognized as one of 
the greatest humorists America has pro- 
duced. He was born in Monroe county, 
Missouri, November 30, 1835. Hespenthis 
boyhood days in his native state and many 
of his earlier experiences are related in vari- 
ous forms in his later writings. One of his 
early acquaintances, Capt. Isaiah Sellers, 
at an early daj' furnished river news for the 
New Orleans " Picayune," using the nom- 
dc-pluvw of "Mark Twain." Sellers died 
in 1863 and Clemens took up his uom-dc- 
piiime and made it famous throughout the 
world by his literary work. In 1862 Mr. 
Clemens became a journalist at Virginia, 



Nevada, and afterward followed the same pro- 
fession at San Francisco and Buffalo, New 
York. He accumulated a fortune from the 
sale of his many publications, but in later 
years engaged in business enterprises, partic- 
ularl}' the manufacture of a typesetting ma- 
chine, which dissipated his fortune and re- 
duced him almost to poverty, but with resolute 
heart he at once again took up his pen and 
engaged in literary work in the effort to 
regain his lost ground. Among the best 
known of his works may be mentioned the fol- 
lowing: ' ' The Jumping Frog, " ' ' Tom Saw- 
yer," " Roughing it," " Innocents Abroad," 
"Huckleberry Finn," "Gilded Age," 
"Prince and Pauper," "Million Pound 
Bank Note," "A Yankee in King Arthur's 
Court," etc. 

CHRISTOPHER CARSON, better 
known as "Kit Carson;" was an Amer- 
ican trapper and scout who gained a wide 
reputation for his frontier work. He was a 
native of Kentucky, born December 24th, 
1809. He grew to manhood there, devel- 
oping a natural inclination for adventure in 
the pioneer e.xperiences in his native state. 
When yet a young man he became quite 
well known on the frontier. He served as 
a guide to Gen. Fremont in his Rocky 
Mountain e.xplorations and enlisted in the 
arm}'. He was an officer in the United 
States service in both the Mexican war and 
the great Civil war, and in the latter received 
a brevet of brigadier-general for meritorious 
service. His death occurred May 23, 
1868. 

JOHN SHERM.\N.— Statesman, politi- 
cian, cabinet officer andsenator, the name 
of the gentleman who heads this sketch is al- 
most a household word throughout this 
country. Identified with some of the most 



COMPEXDIC^ OF BIOGRAPHY. 



87 



important measures adopted by our Govern- 
ment since the close of the Civil war, he may 
well be called one of the leading men of his 
day. 

John Sherman was born at Lancaster, 
Fairfield county, Ohio, May loth, 1823, 
the son of Charles R. Sherman, an emi- 
nent lawyer and judge of the supreme court 
of Ohio and who died in 1829. The subject 
of this article received an academic educa- 
tion and was admitted to the bar in 1S44. 
In the Whig conventions of 1844 and 1848 
he sat as a delegate. He was a member of 
the National house of representatives, 
from 1855 to 1 86 1. In i860 he was re- 
elected to the same position but was chosen 
United States senator before he took his 
seat in the lower house. He was re-elected 
senator in 1S66 and 1872 and was long 
chairman of the committee on finance and 
on agriculture. He^ took a prominent part 
in debates on finance and on the conduct of 
the war, and was one of the authors of the 
reconstruction measures in 1866 and 1S67, 
and was appointed secretary of the treas- 
ury March 7th, 1877. 

Mr. Sherman was re-elected United States 
senator from Ohio January i8th, 1881, and 
again in 1886 and 1892, during which time 
he was regarded as one of the most promi- 
nent leaders of the Republican party, both 
in the senate and in the country. He was 
several times the favorite of his state for the 
nomination for president. 

On the formation of his cabinet in March, 
1897, President McKinley tendered the posi- 
tion of secretary of state to Mr. Sherman, 
which was accepted. 



WILLI.\M HENRY H.\RRISON, ninth 
president of the United States, was 
born in Charles county, Virginia, February 
9' '773. the son of Governor Benjamin 



Harrison. He took a course in Hampden- 
Sidney College with a view to the practice 
of medicine, and then went to Philadelphia 
to study under Dr. Rush, but in 1791 he 
entered the army, and obtained the commis- 
sion of ensign, was soon promoted to the 
lieutenancy, and was with General Wayne 
in his war against the Indians. For his 
valuable service he was promoted to the 
rank of captain and given command of Fort 
Washington, now Cincinnati. He was ap- 
pointed secretary of the Northwest Territory 
in 1797, and in 1799 became its representa- 
tive in congress. In 1801 he was appointed 
governor of Indiana Territory, and held the 
position for twelve years, during which time 
he negotiated important treaties with the In- 
dians, causing them to relinquish millions of 
acres of land, and also won the battle of 
Tippecanoe in 181 1. He succeeded in 
obtaining a change in the law which did not 
permit purchase of public lands in less tracts 
than four thousand acres, reducing the limit 
to three hundred and twenty acres. He 
became major-general of Kentucky militia 
and brigadier-general in the United States 
army in 181 2, and won great renown in 
the defense of Fort Meigs, and his victory 
over the British and Indians under Proctor 
and Tecumseh at the Thames river, October 

5, 1813- 

In 1 8 16 General Harrison was elected to 
congress from Ohio, and during the canvass 
was accused of corrupt methods in regard tc 
the commissariat of the army. He demanded 
an investigation after the election and was 
exonerated. In 18 19 he was elected to 
the Ohio state senate, and in 1824 he gave 
his vote as a presidential elector to Henry 
Clay. He became a member of the United 
States senate the same year. During the 
last year of Adams' administration he was 
sent as minister to Colombia, but was re- 



88 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



called by President Jackson the following 
5'ear. He then retired to his estate at North 
Bend, Ohio, a few miles below Cincinnati. In 
1836 he was a candidate for the presidency, 
but as there were three other candidates 
the votes were divided, he receiving seventy- 
three electoral votes, a majority going to 
Mr. Van Buren, the Democratic candidate. 
Four years later General Harrison was again 
nominated by the Whigs, and elected by a 
tremendous majority. The campaign was 
noted for its novel features, many of which 
have found a permanent place in subsequent 
campaigns. Those peculiar to that cam- 
paign, however, were the ' ' log-cabin " and 
"hard cider" watchwords, which produced 
great enthusiasm among his followers. One 
month after his inauguration he died from 
an attack of pleurisy, April 4, 1841. 



CHARLES A. DANA, the well-known 
and widely-read journalist of New York 
City, a native of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, 
was born August 8, 18 19. He received 
the elements of a good education in his 
youth and studied for two years at Harvard 
University. Owing to some disease of the 
eyes he was unable to complete his course 
and graduate, but was granted the degree of 
A. M. notwithstanding. For some time he 
was editor of the " Harbinger," and was a 
regular contributor to the Boston " Chrono- 
type." In 1S47 he became connected with 
the New York " Tribune, " and continued on 
the stai! of that journal until 1858. In the 
latter year he edited and compiled "The 
Household Book of Poetry," and later, in 
connection with George Ripley, edited the 
"New American Cyclopedia." 

Mr. Dana, on severing his connection 
with the " Tribune " in 1867, became editor 
of the New York "Sun," a paper with 
which he was identified <or many years, and 



which he made one of the leaders of thought 
in the eastern part of the United States. 
He wielded a forceful pen and fearlessly 
attacked whatever was corrupt and unworthy 
in politics, state or national. The same 
year, 1867, Mr. Dana organized the New 
York "Sun " Company. 

During the troublous days of the war, 
when the fate of the Nation depended upon 
the armies in the field, Mr. Dana accepted 
the arduous and responsible position of 
assistant secretary of war^ and held the 
position during the greater part of 1863 
and 1864. He died October 17, 1897. 



ASA GRAY was recognized throughout the 
scientific world as one of the ablest 
and most eminent of botanists. He was 
born at Paris, Oneida county, New York, 
November 18, iSio. He received his medi- 
cal degree at the Fairfield College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, in Herkimer county. 
New York, and studied botany with the late 
Professor Torrey, of New York. He was 
appointed botanist to the Wilkes expedition 
in 1834, but declined the offer and became 
professor of natural history in Harvard Uni- 
versity in 1842. He retired from the active 
duties of this post in 1873, and in 1874 he 
was the regent of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion at Washington, District of Columbia. 
Dr. Gray wrote several books on the sub- 
ject of the many sciences of which he was 
master. In 1836 he published his " Ele- 
ments of Botany," " Manual of Botany" in 
1848; the unfinished "Flora of North 
America," by himself and Dr. Torrey, the 
publication of which commenced in 1838. 
There is another of his unfinished works 
called "Genera Boreali-Americana, " pub- 
lished in 184S, and the "Botany of the 
United States Pacific Exploring Expedition 
in 1S54." He wrote many elaborate papers 



COMPEXD/r.\f OF BIOGRAPHT. 



89 



on the botany of the west and southwest 
that were published in the Smithsonian Con- 
tributions, Memoirs, etc., of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which in- 
stitution he was president for ten years. 
He was also the author of many of the 
government reports. ' ' How Plants Grow, " 
"Lessons in Botah\'," " Structural and Sys- 
tematic Botany," are also works from his 
leady pen. 

Dr. Graj' published in 1861 his "Free 
Examination of Darwin's Treatise " and his 
" Darwiniana," in 1876. Mr. Gray was 
elected July 29, 1878, to a membership in 
the Institute of France, Academy of Sciences. 
His death occurred at Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts, January 30, 1889. 



WILLIAM MAXWELL EVARTS was 
one of the greatest leaders of the 
American bar. He was born in Boston, 
Massachusetts, February 6, iSiS, and grad- 
uated from Yale College in 1837. He took 
up the study of law, which he practiced in 
the cit}' of New York and won great renown 
as an orator and advocate. He affiliated 
with the Republican party, which he joined 
soon after its organization. He was the 
leading counsel employed for the defense of 
President Johnson in his trial for impeach- 
.nent before the senate in April and May of 
1868. 

In July, 1868, Mr. Evarts was appointed 
attorney-general of the United States, and 
served until March 4, 1869. He was one 
of the three lawyers who were selected by 
President Grant in 1871 to defend the inter- 
ests of the citizens of the United States be- 
fore the tribunal of arbitration which met 
at Geneva in Switzerland to settle the con- 
troversy over the " Alabama Claims." 

He was one of the most eloquent advo- 
cates in the United States, and many of liis 



public addresses have been preserved and 
published. He was appointed secretary of 
state March 7, 1877, by President Hayes, 
and served during the Hayes administration. 
He was elected senator from the state of 
New York January 21, 1885, and at once 
took rank among the ablest statesmen in 
Congress, and the prominent part he took 
in the discussion of public questions gave 
him a national reputation. 



JOHN WANAMAKER.— The life of this 
<J great merchant demonstrates the fact 
that the great secret of rising from the ranks 
is, to-day, as in the past ages, not so much the 
ability to make money, as to save it, or in 
other words, the ability to live well within 
one's income. Mr. Wanamaker was born in 
Philadelphia in 1838. He started out in 
life working in a brickyard for a mere pit- 
tance, and left that position to work in a 
book store as a clerk, where he earned 
the sum of $5.00 per month, and later on 
was in the employ of a clothier where he 
received twenty-five cents a week more. 
He was only fifteen years of age at that 
time, but was a " money-getter " by instinct, 
and laid by a small sum for a possible rainy 
day. By strict attention to business, com- 
bined with natural ability, he was promoted 
many times, and at the age of twenty he 
had saved $2,000. After several months 
vacation in the south, he returned to Phila- 
delphia and became a master brick mason, 
but this was too tiresome to the young man, 
and he opened up the " Oak Hall " clothing 
store in April, 1861, at Philadelphia. The 
capital of the firm was rather limited, but 
finally, after many discouragements, they 
laid the foundations of one of the largest 
business houses in the world. The estab- 
lishment covers at the present writing sonfe 
fourteen acres of floor space, and furnishes 



90 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



employment for five thousand persons. Mr. 
Wanamaker was also a great church worker, 
and built a church that cost him $60,000, 
and he was superintendent of the Sunday- 
school, which had a membership of over 
three thousand children. He steadily re- 
fused to run for mayor or congress and the 
only public office that he ever held was that 
of postmaster-general, under the Harrison 
administration, and here he exhibited his 
extraordinary aptitude for comprehending 
the details of public business. 



DAVID BENNETT HILL, a Demo- 
cratic politician who gained a na- 
tional reputation, was born August 29, 
1S43, at Havana, New York. He was 
educated at the academy of his native town, 
and removed to Elmira, New York, in 1862, 
where he studied law. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1864, in which year he was ap- 
pointed city attorney. Mr. Hill soon gained 
a considerable practice, becoming prominent 
in his profession. He developed a taste for 
politics in which he began to take an active 
part in the different campaigns and became 
the recognized leader of the local Democ- 
racy. In 1870 he was elected a member of 
the assembly and was re-elected in 1872. 
While a member of this assembly he formed 
the acquaintance of Samuel J. Tilden, after- 
ward governor of the state, who appointed 
Mr. Hill. \V. M. Evarts and Judge Hand 
as a committee to provide a uniform charter 
for the different cities of the state. The 
pressure of professional engagements com- 
pelled him to decline to serve. In 1877 
Mr. Hill was made chairman of the Demo- 
cratic state convention at Albany, his elec- 
tion being due to the Tilden wing of the 
party, ana he he'd the 3ame position again 
in 1 88 1. He served one term as alderman 
in Elmira. at the expiration of which term, 



in 1S82, he was elected mayor of Elmira, 
and in September of the same year was 
nominated for lieutenant-governor on the 
Democratic state ticket. He was success- 
ful in the campaign and two years later, 
when Grover Cleveland was elected to the 
presidency, Mr. Hill succeeded to the gov- 
ernorship for the unexpired term. In 1885 
he was elected governor for a full term of 
three years, at the end of which he was re- 
elected, his term expiring in 1891, in which 
year he was elected United States senator. 
In the senate he became a conspicuous 
figure and gained a national reputation. 



ALLEN G. THURMAN.—" The noblest 
Roman of them all " was the title by 
which Mr. Thurman was called by his com- 
patriots of the Democracy. He was the 
greatest leader of the Democratic party in 
his day and held the esteem of all the 
people, regardless of their political creeds. 
Mr. Thurman was born November 13, 1813, 
at Lynchburg, Virginia, where he remained 
until he had attained the age of six years, 
when he moved to Ohio. He received an 
academic education and after graduating, 
took up the study of law, was admitted to 
the bar in 1S35, and achieved a brilliant 
success in that line. In political life he was 
very successful, and his first office was that 
of representative of the state of Ohio in the 
twenty-ninth congress. He was elected 
judge of the supreme court of Ohio in 185 1, 
and was chief justice of the same from 1854 
to 1856. In 1S67 he was the choice of the 
Democratic party of his state for governor, 
and was elected to the United States senate 
in 1869 to succeed Benjamin F. Wade. 
. and was re-elected to the same position in 
; 1874. He was a prominent figure in thi; 
j senate, until the expiration of his service i i 
I 1 88 1. Mr. Thurman was also one of the 



I 



I 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



91 



principal pres>dental possibilities in the 
Democratic convention held at St. Louis in 
1 8/6. In 1888 he was the Democratic 
nominee for vice-president on the ticket 
with Grover Cleveland, but was defeated. 
Allen Cranberry Thurman died December 
12, 1895, at Columbus, Ohio. 



CHARLES FARRAR BROWNE, better 
known as " Artemus Ward," was born 
April 26, 1834, in the village of Waterford, 
Maine. He was thirteen years old at the 
time of his father's death, and about a year 
later he was apprenticed to John M Ri.x, 
who published the "Coos County Dem- 
ocrat " at Lancaster, New Hampshire. Mr. 
Browne remained with him one year, when, 
hearing that his brother Cyrus was starting 
a paper at Norway, Maine, he left Mr. Rix 
and determined to get work on the new 
paper. He worked for his brother until the 
failure of the newspaper, and then went to 
Augusta, Maine, where he remained a few 
weeks and then removed to Skowhegan, 
and secured a position on the "Clarion." 
But either the climate or the work was not 
satisfactory to him, for one night he silently 
left the town and astonished his good mother 
by appearing unexpectedly at home. Mr. 
Browne then received some letters of recom- 
mendation to Messrs. Snow and Wilder, of 
Boston, at whose office Mrs. Partington's 
(B. P. Shillaber) ' ' Carpet Bag " was printed, 
and he was engaged and remained there for 
three years. He then traveled westward in 
search of employment and got as far as Tif- 
fin, Ohio, where he found employment in the 
office of the "Advertiser," and remained 
there some months when he proceeded to 
Toledo, Ohio, where he became one of the 
staff of thft "Commercial," which position 
he neid uniii 1857. Mr. Browne next went 
10 Cleveland, Ohio, anc beca.me the local 



editor of the "Plain Dealer," and it was m 
the columns of this paper that he published 
his first articles and signed them "Artemus 
Ward." In i860 he went to New York and 
became the editor of " Vanity Fair," but 
the idea of lecturing here seized him, and he 
was fully determined to make the trial. 
Mr. Browne brought out his lecture, "Babes 
in the Woods " at Clinton Hall, December 
23, 1861, and in 1862 he published his first 
book entitled, " Artemus Ward; His Book." 
He attained great fame as a lecturer and his 
lectures were not confined to America, for 
he went to England in 1S66, and became 
exceedingly popular, both as a lecturer and 
a contributor to "Punch." Mr. Browne 
lectured for the last time January 23, 1867. 
He died in Southampton, England, March 
6, 1867. 

THURLOW WEED, a noted journalist 
and politician, was born in Cairo, New 
York, November 15, 1797. He learned the 
printer's trade at the age of twelve years, 
and worked at this calling for several years 
in various villages in centra! New York. He 
served as quartermaster-sergeant .during the 
warof 1812. In 18 18 he established the 
"Agriculturist," at Norwich, New York, 
and became editor of the " .\nti-Masonic 
Enquirer," at Rochester, in 1826. In the 
same year he was elected to the legislature 
and re-elected in 1830, when he located in 
Albany, New York, and there started the 
" Evening Journal," and conducted it in op- 
position to the Jackson administration and 
the nullification doctrines of Calhoun. \ii 
became an adroit party manager, and was 
instrilmental in promoting the nominations 
of Harrison, Taylor and Scott ior the pres- 
idency. In 1856 and in 1860 he threw his 
support to W. H. Seward, but when defeat- 
ed in his object, he gave cordiai supporc to 



92 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPlir. 



Fremont and Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln pre- 
vailed upon him to visit the various capitals 
of Europe, where he proved a valuable aid 
to the administration in moulding the opin- 
ions of the statesmen of that continent 
favorable to the cause of the Union. 

Mr. Weed's connection with the " Even- 
ing Journal " was severed in 1862, when he 
settled in New York, and for a time edited 
the "Commercial Advertiser." In 1868 he 
retired from active life. His " Letters from 
Europe and the West Indies," published in 
1 866, together with some interesting ' ' Rem- 
iniscences," published in the "Atlantic 
Monthly," in 1870, an autobiography, and 
portions of an extensive correspondence will 
be of great value to writers of the political 
history of the United States. Mr. Weed 
died in New York, November 22, 1882. 



WILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY, 
one of the prominent Democratic 
politicians of the country and ex-secretary of 
the navy, was born July 5th, 1841, at Con- 
way, Massachusetts, and received his edu- 
cation at Williston Seminary, East Hamp- 
ton, Massachusetts. Later he attended 
Yale College, where he graduated in 1863, 
and entered the Harvard Law School, which 
he left in 1864. Beginning practice in New 
York city, he soon gained a reputation as 
an able lawyer. He made his first appear- 
ance in public affairs in 1871, when he was 
active in organizing a young men's Demo- 
cratic club. In 1872 he was the recognized 
leader of the county Democracy and in 1875 
was appointed corporation counsel for the 
city of New York. He resigned the office, 
1882, to attend to personal interests and on 
March 5, 1885, he was appointed secretary 
of the navy by President Cleveland. Under 
his administration the navy of the United 
States rapidly rose in rank among the navies 



of the world. When he retired from office 
in 1889, the vessels of the United States 
navy designed and contracted for by him 
were five double-turreted monitors, two 
new armor-clads, the dynamite cruiser "Ve- 
suvius," and five unarmored steel and iron 
cruisers. 

Mr. Whitney was the leader of the 
Cleveland forces in the national Democratic 
convention of 1892. 



EDWIN FORREST, the first and great- 
est American tragedian, was born in 
Philadelphia in 1806. His father was a 
tradesman, and some accounts state that he 
had marked out a mercantile career for his 
son, Edwin, while others claim that he had 
intended him for the ministry. His wonder- 
ful memory, his powers of mimicry and his 
strong musical voice, however, attracted at- 
tention before he was eleven years old, and 
at that age he made his first appearance on 
the stage. The costume in which he appeared 
was so ridiculous that he left the stage in a 
fit of anger amid a roar of laughter from 
the audience. This did not discourage him, 
however, and at the age of fourteen, after 
some preliminary training in elocution, he 
appeared again, this time as Young Norvel, 
and gave indications of future greatness. 
Up to 1826 he played entirely with strolling 
companies through the south and west, but 
at that time he obtained an engagement at 
the Bowery Theater in New York. F"rom 
that time his fortune was made. His man- 
ager paid him $40 per night, and it is stated 
that he loaned Forrest to other houses from 
time to time at $200 per night. His great 
successes were Virginius, Damon, Othello, 
Coriolanus, William Tell, Spartacus and 
Lear. He made his first appearance in 
London in 1836, and his success was un- 
questioned from the start. In 1845, on his 



'OMPENDIUM OF BfOGRAPHr. 



93 



second appearance in London, he became 
involved in a bitter rivalry with the great 
English actor. Macready, who had visited 
America two years before. The result was 
that Forrest was hissed from the stage, and 
it was charged that Macready had instigated 
the plot. Forrest's resentment was so bitter 
that he himself openly hissed Macready 
from his box a few nights later. In 1848 
Macready again visited America at a time 
when American admiration and enthusiasm 
for Forrest had reached its height. Macready 
undertook to play at Astor Place Opera 
House in May, 1849, but was hooted off the 
stage. A few nights later Macready made a 
second attempt to play at the same house, 
this time under police protection. The house 
was filled with Macready 's friends, but the vio- 
olence of the mob outside stopped the play, 
and the actor barely escaped with his life. 
Upon reading the riot act the police and 
troops were assaulted with stones. The 
troops replied, first with blank cartridges, 
and then a volley of lead dispersed the 
mob, leaving thirty men dead or seriously 
wounded. 

After this incident Forrest's popularity 
waned, until in 1855 he retired from the 
stage. He re-appeared in i860, however, 
and probably the most remunerative period 
of his life was between that date and the 
close of the Civil war. His last appearance 
on the stage was at the Globe Theatre, 
Boston, in Richelieu, in April, 1872, his 
death occurring December 12 of that year. 



NOAH PORTER, D. D.. LL. D., was 
one of the most noted educators, au- 
thors and scientific writers of the United 
States. He was born December 14, 181 1, 
at Farmington, Connecticut, graduated at 
Yale College in 183 1, and was master of 
Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven in 



1831-33. During 1833-35 he was a tutor 
at Yale, and at the same time was pursuing 
his theological studies, and became pastor 
of the Congregational church at New Mil- 
ford, Connecticut, in April, 1836. Dr. 
Porter removed to Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, in 1843, and was chosen professor of 
metaphysics and moral philosophy at Yale 
in 1846. He spent a year in Germany in 
the study of modern metaphysics in 1853- 
54, and in 1871 he was elected president of 
Yale College. He resigned the presidency 
in 1885, but still remained professor of met- 
aphysics and moral philosophy. He was 
the author of a number of works, among 
which are the following: "Historical Es 
say," written in commemoration of the 2ootb 
aniversary of the settlement of the town ol 
Farmington; " Educational System of the 
Jesuits Compared;" "The Human Intel- 
lect," with an introduction upon psychology 
and the soul; " Books and Reading;" 
"American Colleges and the American Pub- 
lic;" " Elementsof Intellectual Philosophy;" 
" The Science of Nature versus the Science 
of Man;" " Science and Sentiment;" " Ele- 
ments of Moral Science." Dr. Porter was 
the principal editor of the revised edition of 
Webster's Dictionary in 1864, and con- 
tributed largely to religious reviews and 
periodicals. Dr. Porter's death occurred 
March 4, 1892, at New Haven, Connecticut. 



JOHN TYLER, tenth president of the 
United States, was born in Charles City 
county, Virginia, March 29, 1790, and was 
the son of Judge John Tyler, one of the 
most distinguished men of his day. 

When but twelve years of age young 
John Tyler entered William and Mary Col- 
lege, graduating from there in 1806. He 
took up the study of law and was admitted 
to the bar in 1809, when but nineteen years 



94 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



of age. On attaining his majority in 1811 
he was elected a member of the state legis- 
lature, and for five years held that position 
by the almost unanimous vote of his county. 
He was elected to congress in 1816, and 
served in that body for four years, after 
which for two years he represented his dis- 
trict again in the legislature of the state. 
While in congress, he opposed the United 
States bank, the protective policy and in- 
ternal improvements by the United States 
government. 1825 saw Mr. Tyler governor 
of Virginia, but in 1827 he was chosen 
member of the United States senate, and 
held that office for nine years. He therein 
opposed the administration of Adams and 
the tariff bill of 1828, sympathized with the 
nullifers of South Carolina and was the 
only senator who voted against the Force 
bill lor the suppression of that state's insip- 
ient rebellion. He resigned his position as 
senator on account of a disagreement with 
the legislature of his state in relation to his 
censuring President Jackson. He retired to 
Williamsburg, Virginia, but being regarded 
as a martyr by the Whigs, whom, hereto- 
fore, he had always opposed, was supported 
by many of that party for the vice-presi- 
dency in 1836. He sat in the Virginia leg- 
islature as a Whig in 1839-40, and was a 
del'^gate to the convention of that party in 
1 8.-9. This national convention nominated 
him for the second place on the ticket with 
General William H. H. Harrison, and he 
was elect<;d vice-president in November, 
1840. President Harrison dying one month 
after his inauguration, he was succeeded by 
John Tyler. He retained the cabinet chosen 
by his predecessor, and for a time moved in 
harmony with the Whig party. He finally 
instructed the secretary of the treasury. 
Thomas Ewing, to submit to congress a bill 
for the incorporation of a fiscal bank ol the 



United States, which was passed by con- 
gress, but vetoed by the president on ac- 
count of some amendments he considered 
unconstitutional. For this and other meas- 
ures he was accused of treachery to his 
party, and deserted by his whole cabinet, 
except Daniel Webs' er. Things grew worse 
until he was abandoned by the Whig party 
fortnally, when Mr. Webster resigned. He 
was nominated at Baltimore, in Afay, 1844, 
at the Democratic convention, as their pres- 
idential candidate, but withdrew from the 
canvass, as he saw he had not succeed- 
ed in gaining the confidence of his old 
party. He then retired from politics until 
February, 1861, when he was made presi- 
dent of the abortive peace congress, which 
met in Washington. He shortly after re- 
nounced his allegiance to the United States 
and was elected a member of the Confeder- 
ate congress. He died at Richmond, Janu- 
ary 17, 1S62. 

Mr. Tyler married, in 18 13, Miss Letitia 
Christian, who died in 1842 at Washington. 
June 26, 1844, he contracted a second mar- 
riage, with Miss Julia Gardner, of New York. 



COLLtS POTTER HUNTINGTON, 
one of the great men of his time and 
who has left his impress upon the history of 
our national development, was born October 
22, 1 82 1, at Harwinton, Connecticut. 
He received a common-school education 
and at the age of fourteen his spirit of get- 
ting along in the world mastered his educa- 
tional propensities and his father's objec- 
tions and he left school. He went to Cali- 
fornia in the early days and had opportunities 
which he handled masterfully. Others had 
the same opportunities but they did not have 
his brains nor his energy, and it was he who 
overcame obstacles and reaped the reward 
of his genius. Transcontinental railways 



COMPEND/trM OF BTOGIiAPffr. 



<^ 



were inevitable, but the realization of this 
masterful achievement would have been de- 
layed to a much later day if there had been 
no Huntington. He associated himself with 
Messrs. Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, 
and Charles Crocker, and they furnished the 
money necessary for a survey across the 
Sierra Nevadas, secured a charter for the 
road, and raised, with the government's aid, 
money enough to construct and equip that 
railway, which at the time of its completion 
was a marvel of engineering and one of the 
wonders of the world. Mr. Huntington be- 
came president of the Southern Pacific rail- 
road, vice-president of the Central Pacific; 
trustee of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph 
Company, and a director of the Occidental 
and Oriental Steamship Company, besides 
being identified with many other business 
enterprises of vast importance. 



GEORGE A. CUSTER, a famous In- 
dian fighter, was born in Ohio in 1840. 
He graduated at West Point in 1861, an- 
served in the Civil war; was at Bull Run id 
1861, and was in the Peninsular campaign, 
being one of General McClellan's aides-de, 
camp. He fought in the battles of South 
Mountain and Antietam in 1863, and was 
with General Stoneman on his famous 
cavalry raid. He was engaged in the battle 
of Gettysburg, and was there made brevet- 
major. In 1863 was appointed brigadier- 
general of volunteers. General Custer was 
in many skirmishes in central Virginia in 
1863-64, and was present at the following 
battles of the Richmond campaign: Wil- 
derness, Todd's Tavern, Yellow Tavern, where 
hewasbrevetted lieutenant-colonel; Meadow 
Bridge, Haw's Shop, Cold Harbor, Trevil- 
lian Station. In the Shenandoah Valley 
1 864-65 he was brevetted colonel at Opequan 
Creek, and at Cedar Creek he was made 



brevet major-general for gallant conduct 
during the engagement. General Custer 
was in command ot a cavalry division in the 
pursuit of Lee's army in 1865, and fought 
at Dinwiddie Court House, Five Forks, 
where he was made brevet brigadier-general ; 
Sailors Creek and Appomattox, where he 
gained additional honors and was made 
brevet major-general, and was given the 
command of the cavalry in the military 
division of the southwest and Gulf, in 1865. 
After the establishment of peace he went 
west on frontier duty and performed gallant 
and valuable service in the troubles with the 
Indians. He was killed in the massacre on 
the Little Big Horn river. South Dakota, 
June 25, 1876. 



DANIEL WOLSEY VOORHEES, cel- 
brated as " The Tall Sycamore of the 
Wabash," was born September 26, 1827, 
in Butler county, Ohio. When he was two 
months old his parents removed to Fount- 
ain county, Indiana. He grew to manhood 
on a farm, engaged in all the arduous work 
pertaining to rural life. In 1845 he entered 
the Indiana Asbury University, now the De 
Pauw, from which he graduated in 1849. 
He took up the study of law at Crawfords- 
ville, and in 1851 began the practice of his 
profession at Covington, Fountain county, 
Indiana. He became a law partner of 
United States Senator Hannegan, of Indi- 
ana, in 1852, and in 1856 he was an unsuc- 
cessful candidate for congress. In the fol- 
lowing year he took up his residence in Terre 
Haute, Indiana. He was United States 
district attorney for Indiana from 1857 until 
1 86 1, and he had during this period been 
elected to congress, in i860. Mr. Voorhees 
was re-elected to congress in 1862 and 1864, 
but he was unsuccessful in the election of 
1866. However, he was returned to con- 



96 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



gress in 1868, where he remained until 1874, 
having been re-elected twice. In 1S77 he 
was appointed United States senator from 
Indiana to fill a vacancy caused by the death 
of O. P. Morton, and at the end of the term 
was elected for the ensuing term, being re- 
elected in 1885 and in 1891 to the same of- 
fice. He served with distinction on many 
of the committees, and took a very prom- 
inent part in the discussion of all the im- 
portant legislation of his time. His death 
occurred in August, 189 . 



ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, fa- 
mous as one of the inventors of the tele- 
phone, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 
March 3rd, 1847. He received his early 
education in the high school and later he 
attended the university, and was specially 
trained to follow his grandfather's profes- 
sion, that of removing impediments of 
speech. He emigrated to the United States 
in 1872, and introduced into this country 
his father's invention of visible speech in the 
institutions for deaf-mutes. Later he was 
appointed professor of vocal physiology in 
the Boston University. He worked for 
many years during his leisure hours on his 
telephonic discovery, and finally perfected 
it and exhibited it publicly, before it had 
reached the high state of perfection to which 
he brought it. His first exhibition of it was 
at the Centennial Exhibition that was held 
in Philadelphia in 1876. Its success is now 
established throughout the civilized world. 
In 1882 Prof. Bell received a diploma and 
the decoration of the Legion of Honor from 
the Academy of Sciences of France. 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, 
the justly celebrated historian and 
author, was a native of Salem, Massachu- 
setts, and was born May 4, 1796. He was 



the son of Judge William Prescott and the 
grandson of the hero of Bunker Hill, Colonel 
William Prescott. 

Our subject in 1808 removed with the 
family to Boston, in the schools of which 
city he received his early education. He 
entered Harvard College as a sophomore in 
181 1, having been prepared at the private 
classical college of Rev. Dr. J. S. J. Gardi- 
jner. The following year he received an in- 
ury in his left eye which made study 
through life a matter of difficulty. He 
graduated in 18 14 with high honors in the 
classics and belle lettres. He spent several 
months on the Azores Islands, and later 
visited England, France and Italy, return- 
ing home in 18 17. In June, 18 18, he 
founded a social and literary club at Boston 
for which he edited "The Club Room," a 
periodical doomed to but a short life. May 
4, 1820, he married Miss Susan Amory. 
He devoted several years after that event to 
a thorough study of ancient and modern 
history and literature. As the fruits of his 
labors he published several well written 
essays upon French and Italian poetry and 
romance in the " North American Review." 
January 19, 1826, he decided to take up his 
first great historical work, the " History of 
the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella." To 
this he gave the labor of ten years, publish- 
ing the same December 25, 1837. Although 
placed at the head of all American authors, 
so diffident was Prescott of his literarj' merit 
that although he had four copies of this 
work printed for his own convenience, he 
hesitated a long time before giving it to the 
public, audit was only by the solicitation of 
friends, especially of that talented Spanish 
scholar, George Ticknor, that he was in- 
duced to do so. Soon the volumes were 
translated into French, Italian, Dutch and 
German, and the work was recognized 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



97 



throughout the world as one of the most 
meritorious of historical compositions. In 
1843 he published the "Conquest of Mexi- 
co," and in 1847 the "Conquest of Peru." 
Two years later there came from his pen a 
volume of " Biographical and Critical Mis- 
cellanies." Going abroad in the summer of 
1850, he was received with great distinction 
in the literary circles of London, Edinburgh, 
Paris, Antwerp and Brussels. Oxford Uni- 
versity conferred the degree of D. C. L. 
upon him. In 1855 he issued two volumes 
of his "History of the Reign of Philip the 
Second," and a third in 1858. In tlie 
meantime he edited Robertson's "Charles 
the Fifth," adding a history of the life of 
that monarch after his abdication. Death 
cut short his work on the remaining volumes 
Oi " Philip the Second," coming to him at 
Boston, Massachusetts, May 28, 1859. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY, a noted 
American commodore, was born in 
South Kingston, Rhode Island, August 23, 
1785. He saw his first service as a mid- 
shipman in the United States navy in April, 
1799. He cruised with his father, Captain 
Christopher Raymond Perry, in the West In- 
dies for about two years. In 1804 he was 
in the war against Tripoli, and was made 
lieutenant in 1S07. At the opening of hostili- 
ties with Great Britain in 18 12 he was given 
command of a fleet of gunboats on the At- 
lantic coast. At his request he was trans- 
ferred, a year later, to Lake Ontario, where 
he served under Commodore Chauncey, and 
took an active part in the attack on Fort 
George. He was ordered to fit out a squad- 
ron on Lake Erie, which he did, building 
most of his vessels from the forests along 
the shore, and by the summer of 1 8 r 3 he had 
a fleet of nine vessels at Presque Isle, now 
Erie, Pennsylvania. September loth he 



attacked and captured the British fleet near 
Put-in-Bay, thus clearing the lake of hostile 
ships. His famous dispatch is part of his 
fame, " We have met the enemy, and they 
are ours." He co-operated with Gen. Har- 
rison, and the success of the campaign in 
the northwest was largely due to his victory. 
The next j'ear he was transferred to the Po- 
tomac, and assisted in the defense of Balti- 
more. After the war he was in constant 
service with the various squadrons in cruising 
in all parts of the world. He died of yellow 
fever on the Island of Trinidad, August 23, 
1 8 19. His remains were conveyed to New- 
port, and buried there, and an imposing 
obelisk was erected to his memory by the 
State of Rhode Island. A bronze statue 
was also erected in his honor, the unveiling 
taking place in 1885. 



JOHN PAUL JONES, though a native 
of Scotland, was one of America's most 
noted fighters during the Revolutionary war. 
He was born July 6, 1747. His father was 
a gardener, but the young man soon be- 
came interested in a seafaring life and at 
the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a 
sea captain engaged in the American trade. 
His first voyage landed him in Virginia, 
where he had a brother who had settled 
there several years prior. The failure of 
the captain released young Jones from his 
apprenticeship bonds, and he was engaged 
as third mate of a vessel engaged in the 
slave trade. He abandoned this trade after 
a few years, from his own sense of disgrace. 
He took passage from Jamaica for Scotland 
in 1768, and on the voyage both the captain 
and the mate died and he was compelled to 
take command of the vessel for the re- 
mainder of the voyage. He soon after 
became master of the vessel. He returned 
to Virginia about 1773 to settle up the estate 



J& 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



of his brother, and at this time added the 
name "Jones," having previously been 
known as John Paul. He settled down in 
Virginia, but when the war broke out in 
1775 he offered his services to congress and 
was appointed senior lieutenant of the flag- 
ship "Alfred," on which he hoisted the 
American flag with his own hands, the first 
vessel that had ever carried a flag of the 
new nation. He was afterward appointed 
to the command of the "Alfred," and later 
of the "Providence," in each of which ves- 
sels he did good service, as also in the 
" Ranger," to the command of which he 
was later appointed. The fight that made 
him famous, however, was that in which he 
captured the " Serapis," off the coast of 
Scotland. He was then in command of the 
"Bon Homme Richard," which had been 
fitted out for him by the French government 
and named by Jones in honor of Benjamin 
Franklin, or ' ' Good Man Richard, " Frank- 
lin being author of the publication known 
as " Poor Richard's Almanac." The fight 
between the " Richard" and the "Serapis" 
lasted three hours, all of which time the 
vessels were at close range, and most of the 
time in actual contact. Jones' vessel was 
on fire several times, and early in the en- 
gagement two of his guns bursted, rendering 
the battery useless. Also an envious officer 
of the Alliance, one of Jones' own fleet, 
opened fire upon the " Richard " at a crit- 
ical time, completely disabling the vessel. 
Jones continued the fight, in spite of coun- 
sels to surrender, and after dark the " Ser- 
apis "struck her colors, and was hastily 
boarded by Jones and his crew, while the 
"Richard" sank, bows first, after the 
wounded had been taken on board the 
"Serapis." Most of the other vessels of 
the fleet of which the " Serapis" was con- 
voy, surrendered, and were taken with the 



"Serapis" to France, where Jones was 
received with greatest honors, and the king 
presented him with an elegant sword and 
the cross of the Order of Military Merit. 
Congress gave him a vote of thanks and 
made him commander of a new ship, the 
"America," but the vessel was afterward 
given to France and Jones never saw active 
sea service again. He came to America again, 
in 1787, after the close of the war, and was 
voted a gold medal by congress. He went to 
Russia and was appointed rear-admiral and 
rendered service of value against the Turks, 
but on account of personal enmity of the fav- 
orites of the emperor he was retired on a pen- 
sion. Failing to collect this, he returned to 
France, where he died, July 18, 1792. 



THOMAS MORAN, the well-known 
painter of Rocky Mountain scenery, 
was born in Lancashire, England, in 1837. 
He came to America when a child, and 
showing artistic tastes, he was apprenticed 
to a wood engraver in Philadelphia. Three 
years later he began landscape painting, and 
his style soon began to exhibit signs of genius. 
His first works were water-colors, and 
though without an instructor he began the 
use of oils, he soon found it necessary to 
visit Europe, where he gave particular at- 
tention to the works of Turner. He joined 
the Yellowstone Park exploring expedition 
and visited the Rocky Mountains in 1871 
and again in 1873, making numerous 
sketches of the scenery. The most note- 
worthy results were his "Grand Canon of 
the Yellowstone," and " The Chasm of the 
Colorado," which were purchased by con- 
gress at $10,000 each, the first of which is 
undoubtedly the finest landscape painting 
produced in this country. Mr. Moran has 
subordinated art to nature, and the subjects 
he has chosen leave little ground for fault 




IrA '"'^^L^^ 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRA/'llV. 



101 



finding on that account. "The Mountain 
of the Holy Cross," "The Groves Were 
God's First Temples," " The Cliffs of Green 
River," " The Children of the Mountain," 
"The Ripening of the Leaf," and others 
have given him additional fame, and while 
they do not equal in grandeur the first 
mentioned, in many respects from an artis- 
tic standpoint they are superior. 



L ELAND STANFORD was one of the 
greatest men of the Pacific coast and 
also had a national reputation. He was 
born March 9, 1824, in Albany county, New 
York, and passed his early life on his 
father's farm. He attended the local 
schoolj of the county and at the age of 
twenty began the study of law. He 
entered the law office of Wheaton, Doolittle 
and Hadley, at Albany, in 1S45, and a few 
years later he moved to Port Washington, 
Wisconsin, where he practiced law four 
years with moderate success. In 1852 Mr. 
Stanford determined to push further west, 
and, accordingly went to California, where 
three of his brothers were established in 
business in the mining towns. They took 
Leland into partnership, giving him charge 
of a branch store at Michigan Bluff, in 
Placer county. There he developed great 
business ability and four years later started 
a mercantile house of his own in San Fran- 
cisco, which soon became one of the most 
substantial houses on the coast. On the 
formation of the Republican party he inter- 
ested himself in politics, and in i860 was 
sent as a delegate to the convention that 
nominated Abraham Lincoln. In the 
autumn of 1861 he was elected, by an im- 
mense majority, governor of California. 
Prior to his election as governor he had 
been chosen president of the newly-orga- 
nized Central Pacific Railroad Company, 

3 



and after leaving the executive chair he de- 
voted all of his time to the construction of 
the Pacific end of the transcontinental rail- 
way. May 10, 1869, Mr. Stanford drove 
the last spike of "the Central Pacific road, 
thus completing the route across the conti- 
nent. He was also president of the Occi- 
dental and Oriental Steamship Company. 
He had but one son, who died of typhoid 
fever, and as a monument to his child he 
founded the university which bears his son's 
name, Leland Stanford, Junior, University. 
Mr. Stanford gave to this university eighty- 
three thousand acres of land, the estimated 
value of which is $S, 000,000, and the entire 
endowment is $20,000,000. In 1885 Mr. 
Stanford was elected United States senator 
as a Republican, to succeed J. T. Farley, a 
Democrat, and was re-elected in 189 1. His 
death occurred June 20, 1894, at Palo Alto, 
California. 



STEPHEN DECATUR, a famous com- 
modore in the United States navy, was 
born in Maryland in 1779. He entered the 
naval service in 1798. In 1804, when the 
American vessel Philadelphia had been run 
aground and captured in the harbor of Trip- 
oli, Decatur, at the head of a few men, 
boarded her and burned her in the face of 
the guns from the city defenses. For this 
daring deed he was made captain. He was 
given command of the frigate United States 
at the breaking out of the war of 1812, and 
in October of that year he captured the 
British frigate Macedonian, and was re- 
warded with a gold medal by congress. Af- 
ter the close of the war he was sent as com- 
mander of a fleet of ten vessels to chastise 
the dey of Algiers, who was preying upon 
American commerce with impunity and de- 
manding tribute and ransom for the release 
of American citizens captured. Decatur 



102 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



captured a number of Algerian vessels, and 
compelled the dey to sue for peace. He 
was noted for his daring and intrepidity, 
and his coolness in the face of danger, and 
helped to bring the United States navy into 
favor with the people and congress as a 
means of defense and offense in time of 
war. He was killed in a duel by Commo- 
dore Barron, March 12, 1820. 



JAMES IvNOX POLK, the eleventh 
president of the United States, 1845 to 
1849, was born November 2, 1795, in Meck- 
lenburg county, North Carolina, and was 
the eldest child of a family of six sons. He 
removed with his father to the Valley of the 
Duck River, in Tennessee, in 1S06. He 
attended the common schools and became 
very proficient in the lower branches of 
education, and supplemented this with 
a course in the Murfreesboro Academy, 
which he entered in 18 13 and in the autumn 
of 1S15 he became a student in the sopho- 
more class of- the University of North Caro- 
lina, at Chapel Hill, and was graduated in 
181 8. He then spent a short time in re- 
cuperating his health and then proceeded to 
Nashville, Tennessee, where he took up the 
study of law in the office of Felix Grundy. 
After the completion of his law studies he 
was admitted to the bar and removed to 
Columbia, Maury county, Tennessee, and 
started in the active practice of his profes- 
sion. Mr. Polk was a Jeffersonian " Re- 
publican " and in 1823 he was elected to the 
legislature of Tennessee. He was a strict 
constructionist and did not believe that the 
general government had the power to carry 
on internal improvements in the states, but 
deemed it important that it should have that 
power, and wanted the constitution amended 
to that effect. But later on he became 
alarmed lest the general government might 



become strong enough to abolish slavery 
and therefore gave his whole support to the 
" State's Rights" movement, and endeavored 
to check the centralization of power in the 
general government. Mr. Polk was chosen 
a member of congress in 1825, and held that 
office until 1839. He then withdrew, as he 
was the successful gubernatorial candidate 
of his state. He had become a man of 
great influence in the house, and, as the 
leader of the Jackson party in that body, 
weilded great influence in the election of 
General Jackson to the presidency. He 
sustained the president in all his measures 
and still remained in the house after Gen- 
eral Jackson had been succeeded by Martin 
Van Buren. He was speaker of the house 
during five sessions of congress. He was 
elected governor of Tennessee by a large 
majority and took the oath of office at Nash- 
ville, October 4, 1839. He was a candidate 
for re-election but was defeated by Governor 
Jones, the Whig candidate. In 1844 the 
most prominent question in the election was 
the annexation of Texas, and as Mr. Polk 
was the avowed champion of this cause he 
was nominated for president by the pro- 
slavery wing of the democratic party, was 
elected by a large majority, and was inaug- 
urated March 4, 1845. President Polk 
formed a very able cabinet, consisting of 
James Buchanan, Robert J. Walker, Will- 
iam L. Marcy, George Bancroft, Cave John- 
son, and John Y. Mason. The dispute re- 
garding the Oregon boundary was settled 
during his term of office and a -new depart- 
ment was added to the list of cabinet po- 
sitions, that of the Interior. The low tariff 
bill of 1 846 was carried and the financial 
system of the country was reorganized. It 
was also during President Polk's term that 
the Mexican war was successfully conducted, 
which resulted in the acquisition of Califor- 



COMPEXDILM OF BJOGRAJ'Ur 



103 



nia and New Mexico. Mr. Polk retired from 
the presidency March 4, 1S49, after having 
declined a re-nomination, and was succeeded 
by General Zachary Taylor, the hero of the 
Mexican war. Mr. Polk retired to private 
life, to his home in Nashville, where he died 
at the age of fifty-four on June 9, 1849. 



ANNA DICKINSON (Anna Elizabeth 
Dickinson), a noted lecturer and pub- 
lic speaker, was born at Philadelphia, Oc- 
tober 28, 1842. Her parents were Quakers, 
and she was educated at the Frieinis' free 
schools in her native city. She early man- 
ifested an inclination toward elocution and 
public speaking, and when, at the age of iS, 
she found an opportunity to appear before 
a national assemblage for the discussion of 
woman's rights, she at tuice establislied her 
reputation as a public speaker. From i860 
to the close of the war and during the ex- 
citing period of reconstruction, she was one 
of the most noted and influential speakers 
before the American public, and her popu- 
larity was uneqnaled by that of any of her 
sex. A few weeks after the defeat and 
death of Colonel Baker at Ball's Bluff, Anna 
Dickinson, lecturing in New York, made 
the remarkable assertion, " Not the incom- 
petency of Colonel Baker, but the treachery 
of General McClellan caused the disaster at 
Ball's Bluf?." She was hissed and hooted 
off the stage. A year later, at the same 
hall and with much the same class of audi- 
tors, she repeated the identical words, and 
the applause was so great and so long con- 
tinued that it was impossible to goon wiih 
her lecture for more than half an hour. The 
change of sentiment had been wrought by 
the reverses and dismissal of McClellan and 
his ambition to succeed Mr. Lincoln as presi- 
dent. 

Ten years after the close of the war. Anna 



Dickinson was not heard of on the lec- 
ture platform, and about that time she made 
an attempt to enter the dramatic profession, 
but after appearing a number of times in dif- 
ferent plays she was pronounced a failure. 



ROBERT J. BURDETTE.— Some per- 
sonal characteristics of Mr. Burdette 
were quaintly given by himself in the follow- 
ing words: "Politics.' Republican after 
the strictest sect. Religion .' Baptist. Per- 
sonal appearance .' Below medium height, 
and weigh one hundred and thirty- five 
pounds, no shillings and no pence. Rich .•" 
Not enough to own a yacht. Favorite read- 
ing.' PocLry and history — know Longfellow 
by heart, almost. Write for magizines I 
H.ive nio.e ' declined witli thanks ' letters- 
than would fill a trunk. Never able to get 
into a mag iziie with a line. Care about it.' 
Mad as thunder. Think about starting a 
magazine and rejecting everhody's articles 
except my own." Mr. Burdette was born 
at Greensborough, Pennsylvania, in 1844. 
He served through the war of the rebellion 
under General Banks " on an excursion 
ticket" as he felicitously described it, "good 
both ways, conquering in one direction and 
running in the other, pay going on just the 
same." He entered into journalism by the 
gateway of New York correspondence for 
the "Peoria Transcript," and in 1874 went 
on the "Burlington Hawkeye" of which he 
became the managing editor, and the work 
that he did on this paper made both him- 
self and the paper famous in the world of 
humor. Mr. Burdette married in 1870, 
and his wife, whom he called "Her Little 
Serene Highness," was to him a guiding 
light until the day of her death, and it was 
probably the unconscious pathos with which 
h« described her in his work that broke the 
barriers that had kept him out of the maga- 



104 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



zines and secured him the acceptance of his 
"Confessions" by Lippincott some years 
ago, and brought him substantial fame and 
recognition in the literary world. 



WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, one 
of the leading novelists of the present 
■century and author of a number of works 
that gained for him a place in the hearts of 
the people, was born March i, 1837, at 
Martinsville, Belmont county, Ohio. At 
the age of three years he accompanied his 
father, who was a printer, to Hamilton, 
Ohio, where he learned the printer's trade. 
Later he was engaged on the editorial staff 
of the "Cincinnati Gazette " and the " Ohio 
State Journal." During 1861-65 he was 
the United States consul at Venice, and 
from 1 87 1 to 1878 he was the editor-in- 
chief of the "Atlantic Monthly." As a 
writer he became one of the most fertile 
and readable of authors and a pleasing poet. 
In 1885 he became connected with " Har- 
per's Magazine. " Mr. Howells was author 
of the list of books that we give below: 
"Venetian Life," " Italian Journeys," "No 
Love Lost," " Suburban Sketches," "Their 
Wedding Journey," "A Chance Acquaint- 
ance," "A Foregone Conclusion," "Dr. 
Breen's Practice," "A Modern Instance," 
"The Rise of Silas Lapham," "Tuscan 
Cities," "Indian Summer," besides many 
others. He also wrote the " Poem of Two 
Friends," with J. J. Piatt in i860, and 
some minor dramas: "The Drawing 
Room Car," "The Sleeping Car," etc., 
that are full of e.xqusite humor and elegant 
dialogue. 

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL was a son 
of the Kev. Charles Lowell, and was born 
at Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 22, 
J 8 19. He graduated at Harvard College in 



1838 as class poet, and went to Harvard 
Law School, from which he was graduated 
in 1840, and commenced the practice of his 
profession in Boston, but soon gave his un- 
divided attention to literary labors. Mr. 
Lowell printed, in 1841, a small volume of 
poems entitled " A Year's Life," edited with 
Robert Carter; in 1843, "The Pioneer, " a 
literary and critical magazine (monthly), and 
in 1848 another book of poems, that con- 
tained several directed against slavery. He 
published in 1844 a volume of "Poems" 
and in 1845 " Conversations on Some 
of the Old Poets," "The Vision of Sir 
Launfal," " A Fable for Critics," and "The 
Bigelow Papers," the lattet satirical es- 
says in dialect poetry directed against 
slavery and the war with Mexico. In 
1851-52 he traveled in Europe and re- 
sided in Italy for a considerable time, and 
delivered in 1854-55 a course of lectures on 
the British poets, before the Lowell Insti- 
tute, Boston. Mr. Lowell succeeded Long- 
fellow in January, 1855, as professor of 
modern languages and literature at Harvard 
College, and spent another year in Em ope 
qualifying himself for that post. He edited 
the " Atlantic Monthly" from 1857 to 1862, 
and the "North American Review" from 
1863 until 1872. From 1864 to 1870 he 
published the following works: "Fireside 
Travels," " Under the Willows," "The 
Commemoration Ode," in honor of the 
alumni of Harvard who had fallen in the 
Civil war; "The Cathedral," two volumes 
of essays; "Among My Books" and "My 
Study Windows," and in 1867 he published 
a new series of the " Bigelow Papers." He 
traveled e.xtensively in Europe in 1872-74, 
and received in person the degree of D. C. 
L. at O.xford and that of LL. D. at the 
University of Cambridge, England. He 
was also interested in political life and held 



I 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



105^ 



many important offices. He was United 
States minister to Spain in 1877 and was 
also minister to England in 1880-85. O" 
January 2, 1884, he was elected lord rector 
of St. Andrew University in Glasgow, Scot- 
land, but soon after he resigned the same. 
Mr. Lowell's works enjoy great popularity 
in the United States and England. He 
died August 12, 1891. 



JOSEPH HENRY, one of America's 
greatest scientists, was born at Albany, 
New York, December 17, 1797. He was 
educated in the common schools of the city 
and graduated from the Albany Academy, 
where he became a professor of mathemat- 
ics in 1826. In 1827 he commenced a 
course of investigation, which he continued 
for a number of years, and the results pro- 
duced had great effect on the scientific world. 
The first success was achieved by producing 
the electric magnet, and he next proved the 
possibility of e.xciting magnetic energy at a 
distance, and it was the invention of Pro- 
fessor Henry's intensity magnet that first 
made the invention of electric telegraph a 
possibility. He made a statement regarding 
the practicability of applying the intensity 
magnet to telegraphic uses, in his article to 
the ' 'American Journal of Science " in 1 83 1 . 
During the same year he produced the first 
mechanical contrivance ever invented for 
maintaining continuous motion by means of 
electro-magnetism, and he also contrived. a 
machine by which signals could be made at 
a distance by the use of his electro-magnet, 
the signals being produced by a lever strik- 
ing on a bell. Some of his electro-magnets 
were of great power, one carried over a ton 
and another not less than three thousand six 
hundred pounds. In 1832 he discovered 
that secondary currents could be produced 
•■. -1 long cr- -iuctor by the induction of the 



primary current upon itself, and also in the 
same year he produced a spark by means of 
a purely magnetic induction. Professor 
Henry was elected, in 1S32, professor of nat- 
ural philosophy in the College of New Jer- 
sey, and in his earliest lectures at Princeton, 
demonstrated the feasibility of the electric 
telegraph. He visited Europe in 1837, and 
while there he had an interview with Pro- 
fessor Wheatstone, the inventor of the 
needle magnetic telegraph. In 1846 he was 
elected secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, being the first incumbent in that office, 
which he held until his death. Professor 
Henry was elected president of the Ameri- 
can Association for the Advancement of 
Science, in 1849, and of the National 
Academy of Sciences. He was made chair- 
man of the lighthouse board of the United 
States in 1871 and held that position up to 
the time of his death. He received the 
honorary degree of doctor of laws from 
Union College in 1829, and from Harvard 
University in 1851, and his death occurred 
May 13, 1878. Among his numerous works 
may be mentioned the following: "Contri- 
butions to Electricity and Magnetism," 
" American Philosophic Trans, " and many 
articles in the "American Journal of 
Science," the journal of the Franklin Insti- 
tute; the proceedings of the American As- 
sociation for the Advancement of Science, 
and in the annual reports of the Smith- 
sonian Institution from its foundation. 



FRANKLIN BUCHANAN, the famous 
rear-admiral of the Confederate navy 
during the rebellion, was born in Baltimore, 
Maryland. He became a United States 
midshipman in 18 15 and was promoted 
through the various grades of the service 
and became a captain in 1855. Mr. Buch 
anan resigned his captaincy in order to join 



106 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



the Confederate service in 1861 and later he 
asked to be reinstated, but his request was 
refused and he then entered into the service 
of the Confederate government. He was 
placed in command of the frigate " Merri- 
mac " after she had been fitted up as an iron- 
clad, and had command of her at the time 
of the battle of Hampton Roads. It was 
he who had command when the " Merri- 
mac" sunk the two wooden frigates, " Con- 
gress" and "Cumberland," and was also 
in command during part of the historical 
battle of the "Merrimac" and the "Moni- 
tor," where he was wounded and the com- 
mand devolved upon Lieutenant Catesby 
Jones. He was created rear-admiral in the 
Confederate service and commanded the 
Confederate fleet in Mobile bay, which was 
defeated by Admiral Farragut, August 5, 
1864. Mr. Buchanan was in command of 
the "Tennessee," an ironclad, and during 
the engagement he lost one of his legs and 
was taken prisoner in the end by the Union 
fleet. After the war he settled in Talbot 
county, Maryland, where he died May 11, 
1874- 

RICHARD PARKS BLAND, a celebrated 
American statesman, frequently called 
"the father of the house," because of his 
many years of service in the lower house 
of congress, was born August 19, 1835, 
near Hartford, Kentucky, where he received 
a plain academic education. He moved, 
in 1855, to Missouri, from whence he went 
overland to California, afterward locating in 
Virginia City, now in the state of Nevada, 
but then part of the territory of Utah. 
While there he practiced law, dabbled in 
mines and mining in Nevada and California 
for several years, and served for a time as 
treasurer of Carson county, Nevada. Mr. 
Bland returned to Missouri in 1865, where 



he engaged in the practice ot law at RoUa, 
Missouri, and in 1869 removed to Lebanon, 
Missouri. He began his congressional career 
in 1873, when he was elected as a Demo- 
crat to the forty-third congress, and he was 
regularly re-elected to every congress after 
that time up to the fifty-fourth, when he was 
defeated for re-election, but was returned 
to the fifty-fifth congress as a Silver Demo- 
crat. During all his protracted service, 
while Mr. Bland was always steadfast in his 
support of democratic measures, yet he won 
his special renown as the great advocate of 
silver, being strongly in favor of the free 
and unlimited coinage of silver, and on ac- 
count of his pronounced views was one of 
the candidates for the presidential nomina- 
tion of the Democratic party at Chicago in 
1896. 

FANNY DAVENPORT (F. L. G. Daven- 
port) was of British birth, but she be- 
longs to the American stage. She was the 
daughter of the famous actor, E. L. Daven- 
port, and was born in London in 1850. 
She first went on the stage as a child at the 
Howard Athenseum, Boston, and her entire 
life was spent upon the stage. She played 
children's parts at -Burton's old theater in 
Chambers street, and then, in 1862, appeared 
as the King of Spain in " Faint Heart Never 
Won Fair Lady. " Here she attracted the 
notice of Augustin Daly, the noted mana- 
ger, then at the Fifth Avenue theater, who 
offered her a six weeks' engagement with 
her father in "London Assurance." She 
afterwards appeared at the same house in a 
variety of characters, and her versatility 
was favorably noticed by the critics. After 
the burning of the old Fifth Avenue, the 
present theater of that name was built at 
Twenty-eighth street, and here Miss Daven- 
port appeared in a play written for her by 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



107 



Mr. Daly. She scored a great success. 
She then starred in this play throughout the 
country, and was married to Mr. Edwin F. 
Price, an actor of her company, in 1880. 
In 1882 she went to Paris and purchased 
the right to produce in America Sardou's 
great emotional play, "Fedora." It was 
put on at the Fourteenth Street theater in 
New York, and in it she won popular favor 
and became one of the most famous actresses 
of her time. 



HORACE BRIGHAM CLAFLIN, one 
of the greatest merchants America has 
produced, was born in Milford, Massachu- 
setts, a son of John Claflin, also a mer- 
chant. Young Claflin started his active life 
as a clerk in his father's store, after having 
been offered the opportunity of a college 
education, but with the characteristic 
promptness that was one of his virtues he 
exclaimed, "No law or medicine for me." 
He had set his heart on being a merchant, 
and when his father retired he and his 
brother Aaron, and his brother-in-law, Sam- 
uel Daniels, conducted the business. Mr. 
Claflin was not content, however, to run a 
store in a town like Milford, and accordingly 
opened a dry goods store at Worcester, with 
his brother as a partner, but- the partnership 
was dissolved a year later and H. B. Claflin 
assumed complete control. The business 
in Worcester had been conducted on ortho- 
dox principles, and when Mr. Claflin came 
there and introduced advertising as a means 
of drawing trade, he created considerable 
animosity among the older merchants. Ten 
years later he was one of the most prosper- 
ous merchants. He disposed of his busi- 
ness in W'orcester for $30,000, and went to 
New York to search for a wider field than 
that of a shopkeeper. Mr. Claflin and 
William M. Bulkley started in the dry goods 



business there under the firm name of Bulk- 
ley & Claflin, in 1843, and Mr. Bulkley was 
connected with the firm until 185 1, when he 
retired. A new firm was then formed under 
the name of Claflin, McUin & Co. This 
firm succeeded in founding the largest dry 
goods house in the world, and after weather- 
ing the dangers of the civil war, during 
which the house came very near going un- 
der, and was saved only by the superior 
business abilities of Mr. Claflin, continued to 
grow. The sales of the firm amounted to 
over $72,000,000 a year after the close of 
the war. Mr. Claflin died November 14, 
1885. 

CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN (Charlotte 
Saunders Cushman), one of the most 
celebrated American actresses, was born in 
Boston, July 23, 1816. She was descended 
from one of the earliest Puritan families. 
Her first attempt at stage work was at the 
age of fourteen years in a charitable concert 
given by amateurs in Boston. From this 
time her advance to the first place on the 
American lyric stage was steady, until, in 
1835, while singing in New Orleans, she 
suddenly lost control of her voice so far as 
relates to singing, and was compelled to re- 
tire. She then took up the study for the 
dramatic stage under the direction of Mr. 
Barton, the tragedian. She soon after 
made her debut as " Lady Macbeth." She 
appeared in New York in September, 1836, 
and her success was immediate. Her 
"Romeo" was almost perfect, and she is 
the only woman that has ever appeared in 
the part of "Cardinal Wolsey." She at 
different times acted as support of Forrest 
and Macready. Her London engagement, 
secured in 1845, after many and great dis- 
couragements, proved an unqualified suc- 
cess. 



108 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Her farewell appearance was at Booth's 
theater, New York, November 7, 1874, in 
the part of " Lady Macbeth," and after that 
performance an Ode by R. H. Stoddard 
was read, and a body of citizens went upon 
the stage, and in their name the venerable 
poet Longfellow presented her with a wreath 
of laurel with an inscription to the effect 
that "she who merits the palm should bear 
it." From the time of her appearance as a 
modest girl in a charitable entertainment 
down to the time of final triumph as a tragic 
queen, she bore herself with as much honor 
to womanhood as to the profession she rep- 
resented. Her death occurred in Boston, 
February 18, 1876. By her profession she 
acquired a fortune of $600,000. 



NEAL DOW, one of the most prominent 
temperance reformers our country has 
known, was born in Portland, Me., March 20, 
1804. He received his education in the 
Friends Seminary, at New Bedford, Massa- 
chusetts, his parents being members of that 
sect. After leaving school he pursued a 
mecrantile and manufacturing career for a 
number of years. He was active in the 
affairs of his native city, and in 1839 be- 
came chief of the fire department, and in 
1851 was elected mayor. He was re-elected 
to the latter office in 1854. Being opposed 
to the liquor traffic he was a champion of 
the project of prohibition, first brought for- 
ward in 1839 by James Appleton. While 
serving his first term as mayor he drafted a 
bill for the " suppression of drinking houses 
and tippling shops," which he took to the 
legislature and which was passed without an 
alteration. In 1858 Mr. Dow was elected 
to the legislature. On the outbreak of the 
Civil war he was appointed colonel of the 
Thirteenth Maine Infantry and accompanied 
General Butler's e.xpedition to New Orleans. 



In 1862 he was made brigadier-general. At 
the battle of Port Hudson May 27, 1863, he 
was twice wounded, and taken prisoner. He 
was confined at Libby prison and Mobile 
nearly a year, when, being e.xchanged, he 
resigned, his health having given way under 
the rigors of his captivity. He made sev- 
eral trips to England in the interests of 
temperance organization, where he addressed 
large audiences. He was the candidate of 
the National Prohibition party for the presi- 
dency in 1880, receiving about ten thousand 
votes. In 1884 he was largely instrumental 
in the amendment of the constitution of 
Maine, adopted by an overwhelming popular 
vote, which forever forbade the manufacture 
or sale of any intoxicating beverages, and 
commanding the legislature to enforce the 
prohibition. He died October 2, 1897. 



ZACHARY TAYLOR, twelfth president 
of the United States, was born in 
Orange county, Virginia, September 24, 
1784. His boyhood was spent on his fath- 
er's plantation and his education was lim- 
ited. In 1808 he v/as made lieutenant of 
the Seventh Infantry, and joined his regi- 
ment at New Orleans. He was promoted 
to captain in 18 10, and commanded at Fort 
Harrison, near the present site of Terre 
Haute, in 1812, where, for his gallant de- 
fense, he was brevetted major, attaining full 
rank in 1814. In 181 5 he retired to an es- 
tate near Louisville. In 18 16 here-entered 
the army as major, and was promoted to 
lieutenant-colonel and then to colonel. 
Having for many years been Indian agent 
over a large pordon of the western country, 
he was often required in Washington to give 
advice and counsel in matters connected 
with the Indian b ireau. He served through 
the Black Hawk Indian war of 1832, and in 
1837 was ordered to the command of the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



10& 



amy in Florida, where he attacked the In- 
dians in the swamps and brakes, defeated 
them and ended the war. He was brevetted 
brigadier-general and made commander-in- 
chief of the army in Florida. He was as- 
signed to the command of the army of the 
southwest in 1840, but was soon after re- 
lieved of it at his request. He was then 
stationed at posts in Arkansas. In 1845 he 
was ordered to prepare to protect and de- 
fend Texas boundaries from invasion by 
Mexicans and Indians. On the anne.xation 
of Texas he proceeded with one thousand 
five hundred men to Corpus Christi, within 
the disputed territory. After reinforcement 
he was ordered by the Mexican General Am- 
pudia to retire beyond the Nueces river, 
with which order he declined to comply. 
The battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la 
Palma followed, and he crossed the Rio 
Grande and occupied Matamoras May i8th. 
He was commissioned major-general for this 
campaign, and in September he advanced 
upon the city of Monterey and captured it 
after a hard fight. Here he took up winter 
quarters, and when he was about to resume 
activity in the spring he was ordered to send 
the larger part of his army to reinforce 
General Scott at \'era Cruz. After leaving 
garrisons at various points his army was re- 
duced to about five thousand, mostly fresh 
recruits. He was attacked by the army of 
Santa Anna at Buena Vista, February 22, 
1847, and after a severe fight completely 
routed the Mexicans. He received the 
thanks of congress and a gold medal for 
this victory. He remained in command of 
the "army of occupation" until winter, 
when he returned to the United States. 

In 1848 General Taylor was nominated 
by the Whigs for president. He was elected 
over his two opponents, Cass and Van 
Buren. Great bitterness was developing in 



the struggle for and against the extension of 
slavery, and the newly acquired territory in 
the west, and the fact that the states were 
now equally divided on that question, tended 
to increase the feeling. President Taylor 
favored immediate admission of California 
with her constitution prohibiting slavery, 
and the admission of other states to be 
formed out of the new territory as they 
might elect as they adopted constitutions 
from time to time. This policy resulted in 
the " Omnibus Bill," which afterward passed 
congress, though in separate bills; not, how- 
ever, until after the death of the soldier- 
statesman, which occurred July 9, 1850. 
One of his daughters became the wife of 
Jefferson Davis. 



M 



ELVILLE D. LANDON, better known 
as " Eli Perkins, " author, lecturer and 
humorist, was born in Eaton, New York, 
September 7, 1839. He was the son of 
John Landon and grandson of Rufus Lan- 
don, a revolutionary soldier from Litchfield 
county, Connecticut. Melville was edu- 
cated at the district school and neighboring 
academy, where he was prepared for the 
sophomore class at Madison University. He 
passed two years at the latter, when he was 
admitted to Union College, and graduated 
in the class of 1861, receiving the degree of 
A. M., in 1862. He was, at once, ap- 
pointed to a position in the treasury depart- 
ment at Washington. This being about the 
time of the breaking out of the war. and 
before the appearance of any Union troops 
at the capital, he assisted in the organiza- 
tion of the " Clay Battalion," of Washing- 
ton. Leaving his clerkship some time later, 
he took up duties on the staff of General A. 
L. Chetlain, who was in command at Mem- 
phis. In 1864 he resigned from the army 
and engaged in cotton planting in Arkansas 



110 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



and Louisiana. In 1867 he went abroad, 
making the tour of Europe, traversing Rus- 
sia. While in the latter country his old 
commander of the " Clay Battalion," Gen- 
eral Cassius M. Clay, then United States 
minister at St. Petersburg, made him secre- 
tary of legation. In 1871, on returning to 
America, he published a history of the 
Franco-Prussian war, and followed it with 
numerous humorous writings for the public 
press under the name of "Eli Perkins," 
which, with his regular contributions to the 
" Commercial Advertiser," brought him into 
notice, and spread his reputation as a hu- 
morist throughout the country. He also pub- 
lished "Saratoga in 1891," "Wit, Humor 
.and Pathos," "Wit and Humor of the Age," 
" Kings of Platform and Pulpit," " Thirty 
Years of Wit and Humor," " Fun and Fact," 
and " China and Japan." 



LEWIS CASS, one of the most prom- 
inent statesman and party leaders of his 
day, was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, 
October 9, 1782. He studied law, and hav- 
ing removed toZanesville, Ohio, commenced 
the practice of that profession in 1802. He 
entered the service of the American govern- 
ment in 1 812 and was made a colonel in 
the army under General William Hull, and 
on the surrender of Fort Maiden by that 
officer was held as a prisoner. Being re- 
leased in 181 3, he was promoted to the 
rank of brigadier-general and in 18 14 ap- 
pointed governor of Michigan Territory. 
After he had held that office for some 
sixteen years, negotiating, in the meantime, 
many treaties with the Indians, General 
Caos was made secretary of war in the cabi- 
.let of President Jackson, in 1831. He was, 
:n 1836, appointed minister to France, 
which office he held for six years. In 1844 
ne - as elected United States senator from 



Michigan. In 1846 General Cass opposed 
the Wilmot Proviso, which was an amend- 
ment to a bill for the purchase of land from 
Mexico, which provided that in any of the 
territory acquired from that power slavery 
should not exist. For this and other reasons 
he was nominated as Democratic candidate 
for the presidency of the United States in 
1848, but was defeated by General Zachary 
Taylor, the Whig candidate, having but 
one hundred and thirty-seven electoral votes 
to his opponent's one hundred and sixty- 
three. In 1 849 General Cass was re-elected 
to the senate of the United States, and in 
1854 supported Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska 
bill. He became secretary of state in 
March, 1857, under President Buchanan, 
but resigned that office in December, i860. 
He died June 17, 1866. The published 
works of Lewis Cass, while not numerous, 
are well written and display much ability. 
He was one of the foremost men of his day 
in the political councils of the Democratic 
party, and left a reputation for high probity 
and honor behind him. 



DEWITT CLINTON.— Probably there 
were but few men who were so popular 
in their time, or who have had so much in- 
fluence in moulding events as the individual 
whose name honors the head of this article. 
De Witt Clinton was the son of General 
James Clinton, and a nephew of Governor 
George Clinton, who was the fourth vice- 
president of the United States. He was a 
native of Orange county, New York, born at 
Little Britain, March 2, 1769. He gradu- 
ated from Columbia College, in his nativu 
state, in 1796, and took up the study of law. 
In 1 790 he became private secretary to his 
uncle, then governor of New York. He en- 
tered public life as a Republican or anti- 
Federalist, and was elected to the lover 



I 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Ill 



house of the state assembly in 1797, and the 
senate of that body in 1798. At that time 
he was looked on as " the most rising man 
in the Union." In 1801 he was elected to 
the United States senate. In 1803 he was 
appointed by the governor and council 
mayor of the city of New York, then a 
very important and powerful office. Hav- 
ing been re-appointed, he held the office 
of mayor for nearly eleven years, and 
rendered great service to that city. Mr. 
Clinton served as lieutenant-governor of 
the state of New York, 1811-13, and 
was one of the commissioners appointed 
to examine and survey a route for a canal 
from the Hudson river to Lake Erie. Dif- 
fering with President Madison, in relation to 
the war, in 18 12, he was nominated for the 
presidency against that gentleman, by a 
coalition party called the Clintonians, many 
of whom were Federalists. Clinton received 
eight-nine electoral votes. His course at 
this time impaired his popularity for a time. 
He was removed from the mayoralty in 
1 8 14, and retired to private life. In 18 15 
he wrote a powerful argument for the con- 
struction of the Erie canal, then a great and 
beneficent work of which he was the prin- 
cipal promoter. This was in the shape of 
a memorial to the legislature, which, in 
18 17, passed a bill authorizing the construc- 
tion of that canal. The same year he was 
elected governor of New York, almost unani- 
mously, notwithstanding the opposition of 
a few who pronounced the scheme of the 
canal visionary. He was re-elected governor 
in 1820. He was at this time, also, presi- 
dent of the canal commissioners. He de- 
clined a re-election to the gubernatorial 
chair in 1822 and was removed from his 
place on the canal board two years later. 
But he was triumphantly elected to the of- 
fice of governor that fall, and his pet project, 



the Erie canal, was finished the next year. 
He was re-elected governor in 1826, but 
died while holding that office, February 11, 
1828. 

AARON BURR, one of the many brilliant 
figures on the political stage in the early 
days of America, was born at Newark, New 
Jersey, February 6, 1756. He was the son 
of Aaron and Esther Burr, the former the 
president of the College of New Jersey, and 
the latter a daughter of Jonathan Edwards, 
who had been president of the same educa- 
tional institution. Young Burr graduated 
at Princeton in 1772. In 1775 he joined 
the provincial army at Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts. For a time, he served as a private 
soldier, but later was made an aide on the 
staff of the unfortunate General Montgom- 
ery, in the Quebec expedition. Subse- 
quently he was on the staffs of Arnold, Put- 
nam and Washington, the latter of whom 
he disliked. He was promoted to the rank 
of lieutenant-colonel and commanded a 
brigade on Monmouth's bloody field. In 
'779. on account of feeble health. Colonel 
Burr resigned from the army. He took up 
the practice of law in Albany, New York, 
but subsequently removed to New York City. 
In 1789 he became attorney-general of that 
state. In 1791 he was chosen to represent 
the state of New York in the United States 
senate and held that position for si.x years. 
In 1800 he and Thomas Jefferson were both 
candidates for the presidency, and there 
being a tie in the electoral college, each 
having seventy-three votes, the choice was 
left to congress, who gave the first place to 
Jefferson and made Aaron Burr vice-presi- 
dent, as the method then was. In 1S04 Mr. 
Burr and his great rival, Alexander Hamil- 
ton, met in a duel, which resulted in the 
death of the latter. Burr losing thereby con- 



112 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



siderable political and social influence. He 
soon embarked in a wild attempt upon 
Mexico, and as was asserted, upon the 
southwestern territories of the United 
States. He was tried for treason at 
Richmond, Virginia, in 1807, but acquitted, 
and to avoid importunate creditors, fled to 
Europe. After a time, in 18 12, he returned 
to New York, where he practiced law, and 
where he died, September 14, 1836. A man 
of great ability, brilliant and popular talents, 
his influence was destroyed by his unscrupu- 
lous political actions and immoral private 
life. 



ALBERT GALLATIN, one of the most 
distinguished statesmen of the early 
days of the republic, was born at Geneva, 
Switzerland, January 29, 1761. He was 
thesonof Jean de Gallatin and Sophia A. 
Rolaz du Rosey Gallatin, representatives of 
an old patrician family. Albert Gallatin 
was left an orphan at an early age, and was 
educated under the care of friends of his 
parents. He graduated from the University 
of Geneva in 1779, and declining employ- 
ment under one of the sovereigns of Ger- 
many, came to the struggling colonies, land- 
ing in Boston July 14, 1780. Shortly after 
his arrival he proceeded to Maine, where he 
served as a volunteer under Colonel Allen. 
He made advances to the government for 
the support of the American troops, and in 
November, 1780, was placed in command 
of a small fort at Passamaquoddy, defended 
by a force of militia, volunteers and Indians. 
In 1783 he was professor of the French 
language at Harvard University. A year 
later, having received his patrimony from 
Europe, he purchased large tracts of land 
in westtirn Virginia, but was prevented by 
the Indians from forming the large settle- 
ment he proposed, and. in 1786, purchased 



a farm in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. 
In 1789 he was a member of the convention 
to amend the constitution of that state, and 
united himself with the Republican party, 
the head of which was Thomas Jefferson. 
The following year he was elected to the 
legislature of Pennsylvania, to which he was 
subsequently re-elected. In 1793 he was 
elected to the United States senate, but 
could not take his seat on account of not 
having been a citizen long enough. In 1794 
Mr. Gallatin was elected to the representa- 
tive branch of congress, in which he served 
three terms. He also took an important 
position in the suppression of the "whiskey 
insurrection." In 1801, on the accession of 
Jefferson to the presidency, Mr. Gallatin 
was appointed secretary of the treasury. 
In 1809 Mr. Madison offered him the posi- 
tion of secretary of state, but he declined, 
and continued at the head of the treasury 
until 1 812, a period of twelve years. He 
exercised a great influence on the other de- 
partments and in the general administration, 
especially in the matter of financial reform, 
and recommended measures for taxation, 
etc., which were passed by congress, and be- 
came laws May 24, 1 8 1 3. The same year he 
was sent as an envoy extraordinary to Rus- 
sia, which had offered to mediate between 
this country and Great Britain, but the lat- 
ter country refusing the interposition of 
another power, and agreeing to treat di- 
rectly with the United States, in 18 14. at 
Ghent, Mr. Gallatin, in connection with his 
distinguished colleagues, negotiated and 
signed the treaty of peace. In 181 5. in 
conjunction with Messrs. Adams and Clay, 
he signed, at London, a commercial treaty 
between the two countries. In 1S16, de- 
clining his old post at the head of the treas- 
ury, Mr. Gallatin was sent as minister to 
France, wh re he remained until 1823. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPfir. 



118 



After a year spent in England as envoy ex- 
traordinary, he took up his residence in New 
York, and from that time held no public 
office. In 1830 he was chosen president of 
the council of the University of New York. 
He was, in 1831, made president of the 
National bank, which position he resigned 
in 1839. He died August 12, 1849. 



M 



ILLARD FILLMORE, the thirteenth 
president of the United States, was 
born of New England parentage in Summer 
Hill, Cayuga county, New York, January 7, 
1800. His school education was very lim- 
ited, but he occupied his leisure hours in 
study. He worked in youth upon his fa- 
ther's farm in his native county, and at the 
age of fifteen was apprenticed to a wool 
carder and cloth dresser. Four years later 
he was induced by Judge Wood to enter his 
office at Montville, New York, and take up 
the study of law. This warm friend, find- 
ing young Fillmore destitute of means, 
loaned him money, but the latter, not wish- 
ing to incur a heavy debt, taught school 
during part of the time and in this and other 
ways helped maintain himself. In 1822 he 
removed to Buffalo, New York, and the year 
following, being admitted to the bar, he 
commenced the practice of his profession 
at East Aurora, in the same state. Here 
he remained until 1830, having, in the 
meantime, been admitted to practice in the 
supreme court, when he returned to Buffalo, 
where he became the partner of S. G. 
Haven and N. K. Hall. He entered poli- 
tics and served in the state legislature from 
1829 to 1832. He was in congress in 1833- 
35 and in 1837-41, where he proved an 
active and useful member, favoring the 
views of John Quincy Adams, then battling 
almost alone the slave-holding party in na- 
tional politics, and in most 01 public ques- 



tions acted with the Whig party. While 
chairman of the committee of ways and 
means he took a leading part in draughting 
the tariff bill of 1842. In 1844 Mr. Fill- 
more was the Whig candidate for governor 
of New York. In 1S47 he was chosen 
comptroller of the state, and abandoning 
his practice and profession removed to Al- 
bany. In 1848 he was elected vice presi- 
dent on the ticket with General Zachary 
Taylor, and they were inaugurated the fol- 
lowing March. On the death of the presi- 
dent, July 9, 1850, Mr. Fillmore was in- 
ducted into that office. The great events 
of his administration were the passage of 
the famous compromise acts of 1850, and 
the sending out of the Japan expedition of 
1852. 

March 4, 1853, having served one term, 
President Fillmore retired from office, and 
in 1855 went to Europe, where he received 
marked attention. On returning home, in 
1856, he was nominated for the presidency 
by the Native American or " Know-Noth- 
ing" party, but was defeated, James Buch- 
anan being the successful candidate. 

Mr. Fillmore ever afterward lived in re- 
tirement. During the conflict of Civil war 
he was mostly silent. It was generally sup- 
posed, however, that his sympathy was with 
the southern confederacy. He kept aloof 
from the conflict without any words of cheer 
to the one party or the other. For this rea- 
son he was forgotten by both. He died of 
paralysis, in Buffalo, New York, March 8, 
1874- 

PETER F. ROTHERMEL, one of Amer- 
ica's greatest and best-known historical 
painters, was born in Luzerne county, Penn- 
sylvania, July 8, 1817, and was of German 
ancestry. He received his earlier education 
in his native county, and in Philadelphia 



114 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



learned the profession of land surveying. 
But a strong bias toward art drew him away 
and he soon opened a studio where he did 
portrait painting. This soon gave place to 
historical painting, he having discovered the 
bent of his genius in that direction. Be- 
sides the two pictures in the Capitol at 
Washington — ' 'DeSoto Discovering the Mis- 
sissippi" and "Patrick Henry Before the 
Virginia House of Burgesses" — Rothermel 
painted many others, chief among which 
are: "Columbus Before Queen Isabella," 
"Martyrs of the Colosseum," "Cromwell 
Breaking Up Service in an English Church," 
and the famous picture of the "Battle 
of Gettysburg." The last named was 
painted for the state of Pennsylvania, for 
which Rothermel received the sum of $25,- 
000, and which it took him four years to 
plan and to paint. It represents the portion 
of that historic field held by the First corps, 
an exclusively Pennsylvania body of men, 
and was selected by Rothermel for that 
reason. For many years most of his time 
was spent in Italy, only returning for short 
periods. He died at Philadelphia, August 
16. 1895. 

EDMUND KIRBY SMITH, one of the 
distinguished leaders upon the side of the 
south in the late Civil war, was born at St. 
Augustine, Florida, in 1824. After receiv- 
ing the usual education he was appointed to 
the United States Military Academy at West 
Point, from which he graduated in 1845 and 
entered the army as second lieutenant of 
infantry. During the Mexican war he was 
made first lieutenant and captain for gallant 
conduct at Cerro Gordo and Contreras. 
From 1849 to 1852 he was assistant pro- 
fessor of mathematics at West Point. He 
was transferred to the Second cavalry with 
the rank of captain in 1855, served on the 



frontier, and was wounded in a fight with 
Comanche Indians in Texas, May 13, 1859. 
In January, 1861, he became major of his 
regiment, but resigned April 9th to fol- 
low the fortunes of the southern cause. 
He was appointed brigadier-general in the 
Confederate army and served in Virginia. 
At the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, 
he arrived on the field late in the day, but 
was soon disabled by a wound. He was 
made major-general in 1862, and being trans- 
ferred to East Tennessee, was given com- 
mand of that department. Under General 
Braxton Bragg he led the advance in the 
invasion of Kentucky and defeated the Union 
forces at Richmond, Kentucky, August 30, 

1862, and advanced to Frankfort. Pro- 
moted to the rank of lieutenant-general, he 
was engaged at the battle of Perryville, 
October 10, and in the battle of Murfrees- 
boro, December 31, 1862, and January 3, 

1863. He was soon made general, the 
highest rank in the service, and in com- 
mand of the trans-Mississippi department 
opposed General N. P. Banks in the famous 
Red River expedition, taking part in the 
battle of Jenkins Ferry, April 30, 1864, and 
other engagements of that eventful cam- 
paign. He was the last to surrender the 
forces under his command, which he did 
May 26, 1865. After the close of the war 
he located in Tennessee, where he died 
March 28, 1893. 



JOHN JAMES INGALLS, a famous 
American statesman, was born Decem- 
ber 29, 1833, at Middleton, Massachusetts, 
where he was reared and received his early 
education. He went to Kansas in 1858 
and joined the free-soil army, and a year 
after his arrival he was a member of the his- 
torical Wyandotte convention, which drafted 
a free-state constitution. In i860 he was 



I 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1'5 



made secretary of the territorial council, 
and in 1861 was secretary of the state sen- 
ate. The next year he was duly elected to 
the legitimate state senate from Atchison, 
where he had made his home. From that 
time he was the leader of the radical Re- 
publican element in the state. He became 
the editor of the " Atchison Champion " in 
1863, which was a "red-hot free-soil Re- 
publican organ." In 1862 he was the anti- 
Lane candidate for lieutenant-governor, but 
was defeated. He was elected to the Unit- 
ed States senate to succeed Senator Potn- 
eroy, and took his seat in the forty-third 
congress and served until the fiftieth. In 
the forty-ninth congress he succeeded Sen- 
ator Sherman as president pro tern., which 
position he held through the fiftieth con- 
gress. 

BENJAMIN WEST, the greatest of the 
early American painters, was of Eng- 
lish descent and Quaker parentage. He was 
born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, in 1738. 
From what source he inherited his genius it 
is hard to imagine, since the tenets and 
tendencies of the Quaker faith were not cal- 
culated to encourage the genius of art, but 
at the age of nine years, with no suggestion 
except that of inspiration, we find him choos- 
ing his model from life, and laboring over 
his first work calculated to attract public 
notice. It was a representation of a sleep- 
ing child in its cradle. The brush with 
which he painted it was made of hairs 
which he plucked from the cat's tail, and 
the colors were obtained from the war paints 
of friendly Indians, his mother's indigo bag, 
and ground chalk and charcoal, and the juice 
of berries, but there were touches in the rude 
production that he declared in later days 
were a credit to his best works. The pic- 
ture attracted notice, for a council was 



called at once to pass upon the boy's con- 
duct in thus infringing the laws of the so- 
ciety. There were judges among them who 
saw in his genius a rare gift and their wis- 
dom prevailed, and the child was given per- 
mission to follow his inclination. He studied 
under a painter named Williams, and then 
spent some years as a portrait painter with 
advancing success. At the age of twenty- 
two he went to Italy, and not until he had 
perfected himself by twenty-three years of 
labor in that paradise of art was he satisfied 
to turn his face toward home. However, he 
stopped at London, and decided to settle 
there, sending to America for his intended 
bride to join him. Though the Revolution- 
ary war was raging, King George III showed 
the American artist the highest considera- 
tion and regard. His remuneration from 
works for royalty amounted to five thou- 
sand dollars per year for thirty years. 

West's best known work in America is, 
perhaps, "The Death of General Wolf." 
West was one of the thirty-si.\ original mem- 
bers of the Royal academy and succeeded 
Joshua Reynolds as president, which posi- 
tion he held until his death. His early 
works were his best, as he ceased to display 
originality in his later life, conventionality 
having seriously affected his efforts. He 
died in 1820. 



SAMUEL PORTER JONES, the famous 
Georgia evangelist, was born October 
16, 1847, in Chambers county, Alabama. 
He did not attend school regularly during 
his boyhood, but worked on a farm, and 
went to school at intervals, on account of 
ill health. His father removed to Carters- 
ville, Georgia, when Mr. Jones was a small 
boy. He quit school at the age of nineteen 
and never attended college. The war inter- 
fered with his education, which was intended 



116 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



to prepare him for the legal profession. 
After the war he renewed his preparation 
for college, but was compelled to desist from 
such a course, as his health failed him en- 
tirely. Later on, however, he still pursued 
his legal studies and was admitted to the 
bar. Soon after this event he went to Dal- 
las, Paulding county, Georgia, where he was 
engaged in the practice of his profession, 
and in a few months removed to Cherokee 
county, Alabama, where he taught school. 
In 1869 he returned to Cartersville, Georgia, 
and arrived in time to see his father die. 
Immediately after this event he applied for 
a license to preach, and, went to Atlanta, 
Georgia, to the meeting of the North Geor- 
gia Conference of the M. E. church south, 
which received him on trial. He became 
an evangelist of great note, and traveled 
extensively, delivering his sermons in an 
inimitable style that made him very popular 
with the masses, his methods of conducting 
revivals being unique and original and his 
preaching practical and incisive. 



SHELBY MOORE CULLOM, a national 
character in political affairs and for 
many years United States senator from 
Illinois, was born November 22, 1829, at 
Monticello, Kentucky. He came with his 
parents to Illinois in 1 830 and spent his early 
yearson a farm, but havingformed the purpose 
of devoting himself to the lawyer's profession 
he spent two years study at the Rock River 
seminary at Mount Morris, Illinois. In 1853 
Mr. CuUom entered the law office of Stuart 
and Edwards at Springfield, Illinois, and two 
years later he began the independent prac- 
tice of law in that city. He took an active 
interest in politics and was soon elected city 
attorney of Springfield. In 1856 he was 
elected a member of the Illinois house of 
representatives. He identified himself with 



the newly formed Republican party and in 
i860 was re-elected to the legislature of his 
state, in which he was chosen speaker of the 
house. In 1862 President Lincoln appoint- 
ed a commission to pass upon and e.xamine 
the accounts of the United States quarter- 
masters and disbursing officers, composed 
as follows: Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois; 
Charles A. Dana, of New York, and 
Gov. Boutwell, of Massachusetts. Mr. 
Cullom was nominated for congress in 
1864, and was elected by a majority of 
1,785. In the house of representatives he 
became an active and aggressive member, 
was chairman of the committee on territories 
and served in congress until 1868. Mr. 
Cullom was returned to the state legislature, 
of which he was chosen speaker in 1872, 
and was re-elected in 1874. In 1876 he 
was elected governor of Illinois and at the 
end of his term he was chosen for a second 
term. He was elected United States senator 
in 1883 and twice re-elected. 



RICHARD JORDAN CATLING, an 
Am.erican inventor of much note, was 
born in Hertford county. North Carolina, 
September 12, 1818. At an early age he 
gave promise of an inventive genius. The 
first emanation from his mind was the 
invention of a screw for the propulsion ot 
water craft, but on application for a 
patent, found that he was forestalled but 
a short time by John Ericsson. Subse- 
quently he invented a machine for sowing 
wheat in drills, which was used to a great 
extent throughout the west. He then stud- 
ied medicine, and in 1847-8 attended 
lectures at the Indiana Medical College 
at Laporte, and in 184S-9 at the Ohio 
\ Medical College at Cincinnati. He later 
I discovered a method of transmitting power 
1 through the medium of compressed air. A 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAriir. 



119 



double-acting hemp break was also invented 
by him. The invention, however, by which 
Dr. Catling became best known was the 
famous machine gun which bears his name. 
This he brought to light in 1861-62, and on 
the first trial of it, in the spring of the latter 
year, two hundred shots per minute were 
fired from it. After making some improve- 
ments which increased its efficiency, it was 
submitted to severe trials by our govern- 
ment at the arsenals at Frankfort, Wash- 
ington and Fortress Monroe, and at other 
points. The gun was finally adopted by 
our government, as well as by that of Great 
Britain, Russia and others. 



BENJAMIN RYAN TILLMAN, who won 
a national fame in politics, was born 
August II, 1847, in Edgefield county, South 
Carolina. He received his education in the 
Oldfield school, where he acquired the 
rudiments of Latin and Greek, in addition 
to a good English education. He left school 
in 1864 to join the Confederate army, but 
was prevented from doing so by a severe 
illness, which resulted in the loss of an eye. 
In 1867 he removed to Florida, but returned 
in 1868, when he was married and devoted 
himself to farming. He was chairman of 
the. Democratic organization of his county, 
but except a few occasional services he took 
no active part in politics then. Gradually, 
however, his attention was directed to the 
depressed condition of the farming interests 
of his state, and in August, 1885, before a 
joint meeting of the agricultural society and 
state grange at Bonnettsville, he made a 
speech in which he set forth the cause of 
agricultural depression and urged measures 
of relief. From his active interest in the 
farming class he was styled the "Agricult- 
ural Moses." He advocated an industrial 

school for women and for a separate agri- 
7 



cultural college, and in 1887 he secured a 
modification in the final draft of the will of 
Thomas G. Clemson, which resulted in the 
erection of the Clemson Agricultural Col- 
lege at Fort Hill. In 1890 he was chosen 
governor on the Democratic ticket, and 
carried the election by a large majority. 
Governor Tillman was inaugurated Decem- 
ber 4, 1890. Mr. Tillman was next elected 
to the United States senate from South 
Carolina, and gained a national reputation 
by his fervid oratory. 



GEORGE DENISON PRENTICE.— 
No journalist of America was so cele- 
brated in his time for the wit, spice, and 
vigor of his writing, as the gentleman whose 
name heads this sketch. From Atlantic to 
Pacific he was well known by his witticism 
as well as by strength and force of his edi- 
torials. He was a native of Preston, Con- 
necticut, born December 18, 1802. After 
laying the foundation of a liberal education 
in his youth, he entered Brown University, 
from which he was graduated in 1823. Tak- 
ing up the study of law, he was admitted to 
the bar in 1829. During part of his time 
he was editor of the " New England Weekly 
Review," a position which he relinquished 
to go south and was succeeded by John 
Greenleaf Whittier, the Quaker poet. 

On arriving in Louisx'ille, whither he 
had gone to gather items for his history of 
Henry Clay, Mr. Prentice became identified 
with the " Louisville Journal," which, under 
his hands, became one of the leading Whig 
newspapers of the country. At the head of 
this he remained until the day of his death. 
This latter event occurred January 22, 1870, 
and he was succeeded in the control of the 
" Journal " by Colonel Henry Watterson. 

Mr. Prentice was an author of consider- 
able celebrity, chief among his works being 



120 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



"The Life of Henry Clay," and " Prentice- 
ana," a collection of wit and humor, that 
passed through several large editions. 



SAM. HOUSTON, in the opinion of some 
critics one of the most remarkable men 
who ever figured in American history, was a 
native of Rockbridge county, Virginia, born 
March 2, 1793. Early in life he was left in 
destitute circumstances by the death of his 
father, and, with his mother, removed to 
Tennessee, then almost a boundless wilder- 
ness. He received but little education, 
spending the most of his time among the 
Cherokee Indians. Part of the time of his 
residence there Houston acted as clerk for a 
trader and also taught one of the primitive 
schools of the day. In 181 3 he enlisted as 
private in the United States army and was 
engaged under General Jackson in the war 
with the Creek Indians. When peace was 
made Houston was a lieutenant, but he re- 
signed his commission and commenced the 
study of law at Nashville. After holding 
some minor offices he was elected member 
of congress from Tennessee. This was in 
1823. He retained this office until 1827, 
when he was chosen governor of the state. 
In 1829, resigning that office before the ex- 
piration of his term, Sam Houston removed 
to Arkansas, and made his home among the 
Cherokees, becoming the agent of that 
tribe and representing their interests at 
Washington. On a visit to Texas, just 
prior to the election of delegates to a con- 
vention called for the purpose of drawing 
up a constitution previous to the admission 
of the state into the Me.xican union, he was 
unanimously chosen a delegate. The con- 
vention framed the constitution, but, it be- 
ing rejected by the government of Mexico, 
and the petition for admission to the Con- 
federacy denied and the Texans told by the 



president of the Mexican union to give up 
their arms, bred trouble. It was determined 
to resist this demand. A military force was 
soon organized, with General Houston at 
the head of it. War was prosecuted with 
great vigor, and with varying success, but 
at the battle of San Jacinto, April 21,1 836, 
the Mexicans were defeated and their leader 
and president, Santa Anna, captured. Texas 
was then proclaimed an independent repub- 
lic, and in October of the same year Hous- 
ton was inaugurated president. On the ad- 
mission of Texas to the Federal Union, in 
1845, Houston was elected senator, and 
held that position for twelve years. Oppos- 
ing the idea of secession, he retired from 
political life in 1861, and died at Hunts- 
ville, Texas, July 25, 1863. 



P' 



LI WHITNEY, the inventor of the cot- 
1—/ ton-gin, was born in Westborough, Mas- 
sachusetts, December 8, 1765. After his 
graduation from Yale College, he went to 
Georgia, where he studied law, and lived 
with the family of the widow of General 
Nathaniel Greene. At that time the only 
way known to separate the cotton seed from 
the fiber was by hand, making it extremely 
slow and expensive, and for this reason cot- 
ton was little cultivated in this country. 
Mrs. Greene urged the inventive Whitney 
to devise some means for accomplishing 
this work by machinery. This he finally 
succeeded in doing, but he was harassed by 
attempts to defraud him by those who had 
stolen his ideas. He at last formed a part- 
nership with a man named Miller, and they 
began the manufacture of the machines at 
Washington, Georgia, in 1795. The suc- 
cess of his invention was immediate, and the 
legislature of South Carolina voted the sum 
of $50,000 for his idea. This sum he had 
great difficulty in collecting, after years of 



COMPEXDILM OF BlOGRAPIir. 



121 



litigation and delay. North Carolina al- 
lowed him a royalty, and the same was 
agreed to by Tennessee, but was never paid. 

While his fame rests upon the invention 
of the cotton-gin, his fortune came from his 
niiprovements in the manufacture and con- 
struction of firearms. In 1798 the United 
Status government gave him a contract for 
this purpose, and he accumulated a fortune 
from it. The town of Whitneyville, Con- 
necticut, was founded by this fortune. 
Whitney died at New Haven, Connecticut, 
January 8. 1825. 

The cotton-gin made the cultivation of 
cotton profitable, and this led to rapid in- 
troductio.i of sla\'ery in the south. His in- 
vention thus affected our national history in 
a manner little dreamed of by the inventor. 



LESTER WALLACK (John Lester Wal- 
lack), for many years the leading light 
comedian upon the American stage, was 
the son of James W. Wallack, the " Brum- 
mell of the Stage." Both father and son 
were noted for their comeliness of feature 
and form. Lester Wallack was born in 
New York, January 1, 18 19. He received 
his education in England, and made his first 
appearance on the stage in 1848 at the New 
Broadway theater, New York. He acted 
light comedy parts, and also occasion- 
ally in romantic plays like Monte Cristo, 
which play made him his fame. He went 
to England and played under management 
of such men as Hamblin and Burton, and then 
returned to New York with his father, who 
opened the first Wallack's theater, at the 
corner of Broome and Broadway, in 1852. 
The location was afterward changed to 
Thirteenth and Broadway, in 1861, and 
later to its present location, Broadway and 
Thirteenth, in 1882. The elder Wallack 
died in 18G4, after which Lester assumed 



management, jointly with Theodore Moss. 
Lester Wallack was commissioned in the 
queen's service while in England, and there 
he also married a sister to the famous artist, 
the late John Everett Miilais. While Les- 
ter Wallack never played in the interior 
cities, his name was as familiar to the public 
as that of our greatest stars. He died Sep- 
tember 6, 1888, at Stamford, Connecticut. 



GEORGE MORTLMER PULLMAN, 
the palace car magnate, inventor, 
multi-millionaire and manufacturer, may 
well be classed among the remarkable 
self-made men of the century. He was 
born March 3, 1 831, in Chautauqua county, 
New York. His parents were poor, and 
his education was limited to what he could 
learn of the rudimentary branches in the 
district school. At the age of fourteen he 
went to work as clerk for a country mer- 
chant. He kept this place three years, 
studying at night. When seventeen he 
went to Albion, New York, and worked for 
his brother, who kept a cabinet shop there. 
Five years later he went into business for 
himself as contractor for moving buiKlings 
along the line of the Erie canal, which was 
then being widened by the state, and was 
successful in thii. In 1858 he removed to 
Chicago and engaged in the business of 
moving and raising houses. The work was 
novel there then and he was quite success- 
ful. About this time the discomfort attend- 
ant on traveling at night attracted his at- 
tention. He reasoned that the public would 
gladly pay for comfortable sleeping accom- 
modations. A few sleeping cars were in 
use at that time, but tiiey were wretchedly 
crude, uncomtortable affairs. In 1859 he 
bought two old day coaches from the Chi- 
cago & Alton road and remodeled them some- 
thing like the general plan of the sleepine 



122 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



cars of the present day. They were put 
into service on the Chicago & Alton and 
became popular at once. In 1863 he built 
the first sleeping-car resembling the Pullman 
cars of to-day. It cost $18,000 and was 
the " Pioneer." After that the Pullman 
Palace Car Companj' prospered. It had 
shops at different cities. In 1880 the Town 
of Pullman was founded by Mr. Pullman 
and his company, and this model manufac- 
turing community is known all over the 
world. Mr. Pullman died October 19, 1897. 



JAMES E. B. STUART, the most famous 
cavalry leader of the Southern Confed- 
eracy during the Civil war, was born in 
Patrick county, Virginia, in 1833. On 
graduating from the United States Military 
Academy, West Point, in 1854, he was as- 
signed, as second lieutenant, to a regiment 
of mounted rifles, receiving his commission 
in October. In March, 1855, he was trans- 
ferred to the newly organized First cavalry, 
and was promoted to first lieutenant the 
following December, and to captain April 
22, 1 86 1. Taking the side of the south. 
May 14, 1 86 1, he was made colonel of a 
Virginia cavalry regiment, and served as 
such at Bull Run. In September, 1861, he 
was promoted to the rank of brigadier-gen- 
eral, and major-general early in 1862. On 
the reorganization of the Army of Northern 
Virgmia, in June of the latter year, when 
R. E. Lee assumed command. General Stu- 
art made a reconnoissance with one thou- 
sand five hundred cavalry and four guns, 
and in two days made the circuit of McClel- 
lan's army, producing much confusion and 
gathering useful information, and losing but 
one man. August 25, 1862, he captured 
part of Pope's headquarters' train, including 
that general's private baggage and official 
correspondence, and the next night, in a 



descent upon Manasses, capturing immense 
quantities of commissary and quartermaster 
store, eight guns, a number of locomotives 
and a few hundred prisoners. During the 
invasion of Maryland, in September, 1862, 
General Stuart acted as rearguard, resisting 
the advance of the Federal cavalry at South 
Mountain, and at Antietam commanded the 
Confederate left. Shortly after he crossed 
the Potomac, making a raid as far as Cham- 
bersburg, Pennsylvania. In the battle of 
Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, Gen- 
eral Stuart's command was on the extreme 
right of the Confederate line. At Chancel- 
lorsville, after "Stonewall " Jackson's death 
and the wounding of General A. P. Hill, 
General Stuart assumed command of Jack- 
son's corps, which he led in the severe con- 
test of May 3, 1863. Early in June, the 
same year, a large force of cavalry was 
gathered under Stuart, at Culpepper, Vir- 
ginia, which, advancing to join General Lee 
in his invasion of Pennsylvania, was met at 
Brandy Station, by two divisions of cavalry 
and two brigades of infantry, under General 
John I. Gregg, and driven back. During the 
movements of the Gettysburg campaign he 
rendered important services. In May, 1864, 
General Stuart succeeded, by a detour, in 
placing himself between Richmond and 
Sheridan's advancing column, and at Yellow 
Tavern was attacked in force. During the 
fierce conflict that ensued General Stuart 
was mortally wounded, and died at Rich- 
mond, May II, 1864. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE, the fourteenth 
president of the United States — from 
1853 until 1857 — was born November 23, 
1804, at Hiilsboro, New Hampshire. He 
came of old revolutionary stock and his 
father was a governor of the state. Mr. 
Pierce entered Bowdoin College in 1820, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



128 



was graduated in 1824, and took up the 
study of law in the office of Judge Wood- 
bury, and later he was admitted to the bar. 
Mr. Pierce practiced his profession with 
varying successes in his native town and 
also in Concord. He was elected to the 
state legislature in 1833 and served in that 
body until 1837, the last two years of his 
term serving as speaker of the house. He 
was elected to the United States senate in 
1837, just as President Van Buren began 
his term of office. Mr. Pierce served until 
1842, and many times during Polk's term he 
declined important public offices. During 
the war with Mexico Mr. Pierce was ap- 
pointed brigadier-general, and he embarked 
with a, portion of his troops at Newport, 
Rhode Island, May 27, 1847, and went with 
them to the field of battle. He served 
through the war and distinguished himself 
by his skill, bravery and excellent judg- 
ment. When he reached his home in his 
native state he was received coldly by the 
opponents of the war, but the advocates of 
the war made up for his cold reception by 
the enthusiastic welcome which they ac- 
corded him. Mr. Pierce resumed the prac- 
tice of his profession, and in the political 
strife that followed he gave his support to 
the pro- slavery wing of the Democratic 
party. The Democratic convention met in 
Baltimore, June 12, 1852, to nominate a 
candidate for the presidency, and they con- 
tinued in session four days, and in thirty- 
five ballotings no one had secured the re- 
quisite two-thirds vote. Mr. Pierce had not 
received a vote as yet, until the Virginia 
delegation brought his name forward, and 
finally on the forty-ninth ballot Mr. Pierce 
received 282 votes and all the other candi- 
dates eleven. His opponent on the Whig 
ticket was General Winfield Scott, who 
only received the electoral votes of four 



states. Mr. Pierce was inaugurated presi- 
dent of the United States March 4, 1853, 
with W. R. King as vice president, and the 
following named gentlemen were afterward 
chosen to fill the positions in the cabinet: 
William S. Marcy, James Guthrie, Jeffer- 
son Davis, James C. Dobbin, Robert Mc- 
Clelland, James Campbell and Caleb Cush- 
ing. During the administration of President 
Pierce the Missouri compromise law was 
repealed, and all the territories of the Union 
were thrown open to slavery, and the dis- 
turbances in Kansas occurred. In 1857 he 
was succeeded in the presidency by James 
Buchanan, and retired to his home in Con- 
cord, New Hampshire. He always cherished 
his principles of slavery, and at the out- 
break of the rebellion he was an adherent of 
the cause of the Confederacy. He died at 
Concord, New Hampshire, October 8, 1869. 



JAMES B. WEAVER, well known as a 
leader of the Greenback and later of the 
Populist party, was born at Dayton, Ohio, 
June 12, 1833. He received his earlier 
education in the schools of his native town, 
and entered the law departrrtent of the Ohio 
University, at Cincinnati, from which he 
graduated in 1854. Removing to the grow- 
ing state of Iowa, he became connected 
with "The Iowa Tribune," at the state 
capital, Des Moines, as one of its editors. 
He afterward practiced law and was elected 
district attorney for the second judicial dis- 
trict of Iowa, on the Republican ticket in 
1866, which office he held for a short time. 
In 1867 Mr. Weaver was appointed assessor 
of internal revenue for the first district of 
Iowa, and filled that position until some- 
time in 1873. He was elected and served 
in the forty-sixth congress. In 1880 the 
National or Greenback party in convention 
at Chicago, nominated James B. Weaver as. 



V2i 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH7. 



its candidate for the presidency. By a 
union of the Democratic and National 
parties in his district, he was elected to the 
forty-ninth congress, and re-elected to the 
same office in the fall of 1886. Mr. Weaver 
was conceded to be a very fluent speaker, 
and quite active in all political work. On 
July 4, 1892, at the National convention 
of the People's party, General James B. 
Weaver was chosen as the candidate for 
president of that organization, and during 
the campaign that followed, gained a na- 
tional reputation. 



ANTHONY JOSEPH DREXEL, one 
of the leading bankers and financiers of 
the United States, was born in Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, in 1826, and was the son of 
Francis M. Drexel, who had established 
the large banking institution of Drexel & 
Co., so well known. The latter was a native 
of Dornbirn, in the Austrian Tyrol. He 
studied languages and fine arts at Turin, 
Italy. On returning to his mountain home, 
in 1809, and finding it in the hands of the 
French, he went to Switzerland and later 
to Paris. In i8i2,aftera short visit home, 
he went to Berlin, where he studied paint- 
ing until 1 8 17, in which year he emigrated 
to America, and settled in Philadelphia. A 
few years later he went to Chili and Peru, 
where he executed some fine portraits of 
notable people, including General Simon 
Bolivar. After spending some time in Mex- 
ico, he returned to Philadelphia, and en- 
gaged in the banking business. In 1837 he 
founded the house of Drexel & Co. He 
died in 1837, and was succeeded by his two 
sons, Anthony J. and Francis A. His son, 
Anthony J. Drexel, Jr. , entered the bank 
when he was thirteen years of age, before he 
was through with his schooling, and after 
that the history of the banking business of 



which he was the head, was the history of his 
life. The New York house of Dre.xel, Mor- 
gan & Co. was established in 1850; the 
Paris house, Drexel, Harjes & Co., in 1867. 
The Drexel banking houses have supplied 
iand placed hundreds of millions of dollars 
n government, corporation, railroad and 
other loans and securities. The reputation 
of the houses has always been held on the 
highest plane. Mr. Drexel founded and 
heavily endowed the Drexel Institute, in 
Philadelphia, an institution to furnish better 
and wider avenues of employment to young 
people of both sexes. It has departments 
of arts, science, mechanical arts and domes- 
tic economy. Mr. Drexel,Jr. .departed this 
life June 30, 1893. 



SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE, 
inventor of the recording telegraph in- 
strument, was born in Charlestown, Massa- 
chusetts, April 27, 1791. He graduated 
from Yale College in 18 10, and took up art 
as his profession. He went to London with 
the great American painter, Washington 
Allston, and studied in the Royal Academy 
under Benjamin West. His "Dying Her- 
cules," his first effort in sculpture, took the 
gold medal in 1813. He returned to Amer- 
ica in 1 81 5 and continued to pursue his 
profession. He was greatly interested in 
scientific studies, which he carried on in 
connection with other labors. He founded 
the National Academy of Design and was 
many years its president. He returned to 
Europe and spent three years in study 
in the art centers, Rome, Florence, Venice 
and Paris. In 1832 he returned to America 
and while on the return voyage the idea of 
a recording telegraph apparatus occurred to 
him, and he made a drawing to represent his 
conception. He was the first to occupy the 
chair of fine arts in the University of New 



J 



COMPEXDJL'M OF BIOGRAPHY. 



125 



York City, and in 1835 he set up his rude 
instrument in his room in the university. 
But it was not until after many years of 
discouragement and reverses of fortune that 
lie finally was successful in placing his inven- 
tion befure the public. In 1844, by aid of 
the United States government, he had con- 
structed a telegraph line forty miles in length 
from Washington to Baltimore. Over this 
line the test was made, and the first tele- 
graphic message was flashed May 24, 1844. 
from the United States supreme court rooms 
to Baltimore. It read, "What hath God 
wrought!" His fame and fortune were es- 
tablished in an instant. \\'ealth and honors 
poured in upon him from that day. The 
nations of Europe vied with each other 
in honoring the great inventor with medals, 
titles and decorations, and the learned 
societies of Europe hastened to enroll his 
name upon their membership lists and confer 
degrees. In 1S58 he was the recipient of an 
honor never accorded to an inventor before. 
The ten leading nations of Europe, at the 
suggestion of the Emporer Napoleon, ap- 
pointed representatives to an international 
congress, which convened at Paris for the 
special purpose of expressing gratitude of the 
nations, and they voted him a present of 
400,cx)o francs. 

Professor Morse was present at the unveil- 
ing of a bronze statue erected in his honor in 
Central Park, New York, in 1871. His last 
appearance in public was at the unveiling 
of the statue of Benjamin Franklin in New 
York in 1872, when he made the dedica- 
tory speech and unveiled the statue. He 
died April 2, 1872, in the city of New York. 



MORRISON REMICH WAITE, seventh 
chief justice of the United States, was 
born at Lyme, Connecticut, November 29, 
1816. He was a graduate from Yale Col- 



lege in 1837, in the class with \\'illiam M. 
Evarts. His father was judge of the su- 
preme court of errors of the state of Con- 
necticut, and in his office young Waite 
studied law. He subsequently removed to 
Ohio, and was elected to the legislature of 
that state in 1849. He removed from 
Maumee City to Toledo and became a prom- 
inent legal light in that state. He was 
nominated as a candidate for congress re- 
peatedly but declined to run, and also de- 
clined a place on the supreme bench of the 
state. He won great distinction for his able 
handling of the Alabama claims at Geneva, 
before the arbitration tribunal in 1871, and 
was appointed chief justice of the supreme 
court of the United States in 1874 on the 
death of Judge Chase. When, in 1876, elec- 
toral commissioners were chosen to decide 
the presidential election controversy between 
Tilden and Hayes, Judge Waite refused to 
serve on that commission. 

His death occurred March 23, 1888. 



ELISHA KENT KANE was one of the 
distinguished American explorers of the 
unknown regions of the frozen north, and 
gave to the world a more accurate knowl- 
edge of the Arctic zone. Dr. Kane was 
born February 3, 1820, at Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of the 
universities of Virginia and Pennsylvania, 
and took his medical degree in 1843. He 
entered the service of the United States 
navy, and was physician to the Chinese 
embassy. Dr. Kane traveled extensively 
in the Levant, Asia and Western Africa, 
and also served in the Mexican war, in 
which he was severely wounded. His 
first Arctic expedition was under De Haven 
in the first Grinnell expedition in search 
of Sir John Franklin in 1850. He com- 
manded the second Grinnell expedition 



126 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



in 1853-55, and discovered an open polar 
sea. For this expedition he received a gold 
medal and other distinctions. He published 
a narrative of his first polar expedition in 
1853, and in 1856 published two volumes 
relating to his second polar expedition. He 
was a man of activ'e, enterprising and cour- 
ageous spirit. His health, which was al- 
ways delicate, was impaired by the hard- 
ships of his Arctic expeditions, from which 
he never fully recovered and from which he 
died February 16, 1857, at Havana. 



ELIZABETH CADY STANTON was a 
daughter of Judge Daniel Cady and 
Margaret Livingston, and was born Novem- 
ber 12, 181 5, at Johnstown, New York. She 
was educated at the Johnstown Academy, 
i^'here she studied with a class of boj's, and 
was fitted for college at the age of fifteen, 
ifter which she pursued her studies at Mrs. 
iViliard's Seminary, at Troy. Her atten- 
tion was called to the disabilities of her sex 
by her own educational experiences, and 
through a study of Blackstone, Story, and 
Kent. Miss Cady was married to Henry B. 
Stanton in 1840, and accompanied him to 
the world's anti-slavery convention in Lon- 
don. While there she made ihe acquain- 
tance of Lucretia Mott. Mrs. Stanton 
resided at Boston until 1847, when the 
family moved to Seneca Falls, New York, 
and she and Lucretia Mott signed the first 
call for a woman's rights convention. The 
meeting was held at her place of residence 
July 19-20, 1848. This was the first oc- 
casion of a formal claim of suffrage for 
women that was made. Mrs. Stanton ad- 
dressed the New York legislature, in 1854, 
on the rights of married women, and in 
i860, in advocacy of the granting of di- 
vorce for drunkenness. She also addressed 
the legislature and the constitutional con- 



vention, and maintained that during the 
revision of the constitution the state was 
resolved into its original elements, and that 
all citizens had, therefore, a right to vote 
for the members of that convention. After 
1869 Mrs. Stanton frequently addressed 
congressional committees and state consti- 
tutional conventions, and she canvassed 
Kansas, Michigan, and other states when 
the question of woman suffrage was sub- 
mitted in those states. Mrs. Stanton was 
one of the editors of the " Revolution," and 
most of the calls and resolutions for con- 
ventions have come from her pen. She 
was president of the national committee, 
also of the Woman's Loyal League, and 
of the National Association, for many years. 



DAVID DUDLEY FIELD, a great 
American jurist, was born in Connecti- 
cut in 1805. He en.c.cd Williams College 
when sixteen years old, and commenced the 
study of law in 1825. In 1828 he was ad- 
mitted to the bar, and went to New York, 
where he soon came into prominence be- 
fore the bar of that state. He entered upon 
the labor of reforming the practice and 
procedure, which was then based upon the 
common law practice of England, and had 
become extremely complicated, difficult and 
uncertain in its application. His first paper 
on this subject was published in 1839, and 
after eight years of continuous efforts in this 
direction, he was appointed one of a com- 
mission by New York to reform the practice 
of that state. The result was embodied in 
the two codes of procedure, civil and crimi- 
nal, the first of which was adopted almost 
entire by the state of New York, and has 
since been adopted by more than half the 
states in the Union, and became the basis 
of the new practice and procedure in Eng- 
land, contained in the Judicature act. He 



I 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



127 



was later appointed chairman of a new com- 
mission to codify the entire body of laws. 
This great work employed many years in its 
completion, but when finished it embraced 
a civil, penal, and political code, covering 
the entire field of American laws, statutory 
and common. This great body of law was 
adopted by California and Dakota territory 
in its entirety, and many other states have 
since adopted its substance. In 1867 the 
British Association for Social Science heard 
a proposition from Mr. Field to prepare an 
international code. This led to the prepara- 
tion of his " Draft Outlines of an Interna- 
tional Code," which was in fact a complete 
body of international laws, and introduced 
the principle of arbitration. Other of his 
codes of the state of New York have since 
been adopted by that state. 

In addition to his great works on law, 
Mr. Field indulged his literary tastes by fre- 
quent contributions to general literature, 
and his articles on travels, literature, and 
the political questions of the hour gave 
him rank with the best writers of his time. 
His father was the Rev. David Dudley Field, 
and his brothers were Cyrus W. Field, Rev. 
Henry Martin Field, and Justice Stephen 
J. Field of the United States supreme 
court. David Dudley Field died at New 
York, April 1 3, 1894. 



HENRY M. TELLER, a celebrated 
American politician, and secretary of 
the interior under President Arthur, was born 
May 23, 1830, in Allegany county, New 
York. He was of Holhuidish ancestry and 
received an excellent education, after which 
he took up the study of law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in the state of New York. 
Mr. Teller removed to Illinois in January, 
1858, and practiced for three years in that 
state. From thence he moved to Colorado 



in 1 86 1 and located at Central City, which 
was then one of the principal mining towns 
in the state. His exceptional abilities as 
a lawyer soon brought him into prominence 
and gained for him a numerous and profit- 
able clientage. In politics he affiliated with 
the Republican party, but declined to become 
a candidate for office until the admission of 
Colorado into the Union as a state, when 
he was elected to the United States senate. 
Mr. Teller drew the term ending March 
4, 1877, but was re-elected December 11, 
1876, and served until April 17, 18S2, when 
he was appointed by President Arthur as 
secretary of the interior. He accepted a 
cabinet position with reluctance, and on 
March 3, 1885, he retired from the cabinet, 
having been elected to the senate a short 
time before to succeed Nathaniel P. Hill. 
IVfr. Teller took his seat on March 4, 1885, 
in the senate, to which he was afterward 
re-elected. He served as chairman on the 
committee of pensions, patents, mines and 
mining, and was also a member of commit- 
tees on claims, railroads, privileges and 
elections and public lands. Mr. Teller came 
to be recognized as one of the ablest advo- 
cates of the silver cause. He was one of the 
delegates to the Republican National conven- 
tion at St. Louis in 1S96, in which he took 
an active part and tried to have a silver 
plank inserted in the platform of the party. 
Failing in this he felt impelled to bolt the 
convention, which he did and joined forces 
with the great silver movement in the cam- 
paign which followed, being recognized in 
that campaign as one of the most able and 
eminent advocates of "silver" in America. 



JOHN ERICSSON, an eminent inven- 
tor and machinist, who won fame in 
America, was born ir. Sweden, July 31,1 803. 
In early childhood he evinced a decided in- 



128 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ciination to mechanical pursuits, and at the 
age of eleven he was appointed to a cadet- 
ship in the eng;ineer corps, and at the age of 
seventeen was promoted to a lieutenancj'. 
Jn 1826 he introduced a " ilame engine," 
^vhich he had invented, and offered it to 
English capitalists, but it was found that it 
could be operated only by the use of wood 
for fuel. Shortly after this he resigned his 
commission in the army of Sweden, and de- 
voted himself to mechanical pursuits. He 
discovered and introduced the principle of 
artificial draughts in steam boilers, and re- 
ceived a prize of two thousand five hundred 
dollars for his locomotive, the "Novelty," 
which attained a great speed, for that day. 
The artificial draught effected a great saving 
in fuel and made unnecessary the huge 
smoke-stacks formerly used, and the princi- 
ple is still applied, in modified form, in boil- 
ers. He also invented a steam fire-engine, 
and later a hot-air engine, which he at- 
tempted to apply in tiie operation of his 
ship, "Ericsson," but as it did not give the 
speed required, he abandoned it, but after- 
wards applied it to machinery for pumping, 
hoisting, etc. 

Ericsson was first to apply the screw 
propeller to navigation. The English peo- 
ple not receiving this new departure readily, 
Ericsson came to America in 1839, and 
built the United States steamer, "Prince- 
ton," in which the screw-propeller was util- 
ized, the first steamer ever built in which 
the propeller was under water, out of range 
of the enemy's shots. The achievement 
which gave him greatest renown, however, 
was the ironclad vessel, the "Monitor," an 
CI tircly new type of vessel, which, in March, 
18G2, attacked the Confederate monster 
ironclad ram, " Virginia," and after a fierce 
struggle, compelled her to withdraw from 
Hampton Roads for repairs. After the war 



one of his most noted inventions was his 
vessel, " Destroyer, " with a submarine gun, 
which carried a projectile torpedo. In 1886 
the king of Spain conferred on him the 
grand cross of the Order of Naval Merit. 
He died in March, 1889, and his body was 
transferred, with naval honors, to the country 
of his birth. 

JAMES BUCHANAN, the fifteenth presi- 
dent of the United States, was a native 
of Pennsylvania, and was born in Frankliti 
county, April 23, 1791. He was of Irish 
ancestry, his father having come to this 
country in 1783, in quite humble circum- 
stances, and settled in the western part of 
the Keystone state. 

James Buchanan remained in his se- 
cluded home for eight years, enjoying but 
few social or intellectual advantages. His 
parents were industrious and frugal, and 
prospered, and, in 1799, the family removed 
to Mercersbur Pennsylvania, where he 
was placed in school. His progress was 
rapid, and in 1801 he entered Dickinson 
College, at Carlisle, where he took his place 
among the best scholars in the institution. 
In 1809 he graduated with the highest hon- 
ors in his class. He was then eighteen, tall, 
graceful and in vigorous health. He coir.- 
menced the study of law at Lancaster, and 
was admitted to the bar in 18 12. He rose 
very rapidly in his profession and took a 
stand with the ablest of his fellow lawyers. 
When but twenty-six years old he success- 
fully defended, unaided by counsel, one of 
the judges of the state who was before the 
bar of the state senate under articles of im- 
peachment. 

During the war of 18 12-15, Mr. Buch- 
anan sustained the government with all his 
power, eloquently urging the vigorous prose- 
cution of the war, and enlisted as a private 



I 



CO.^fPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



129 



volunteer to assist in repelling the British 
who had sacked and burned the public 
buildings of Washington and threatened 
Baltimore. At that time Buchanan was 
a Federalist, but the opposition of that 
party to the war with Great Britain and the 
alien and sedition laws of John Adams, 
brought that party into disrepute, and drove 
many, among them Buchanan, into the Re- 
publican, or anti-Federalist ranks. He was 
elected to congress in 1S28. In 1831 he 
was sent as minister to Russia, and upon 
his return to this country, in 1833, was ele- 
vated to the United States senate, and re- 
mained in that position for twelve years. 
Upon the accession of President Polk to 
office he made Mr. Buchanan secretary of 
state. Four years later he retired to pri- 
vate life, and in 1853 he was honored with 
the mission to England. In 1856 the na- 
tional Democratic convention nominated 
him for the presidency and he was elected. 
It was during his administration that the 
rising tide of the secession movement over- 
took the country. Mr. Buchanan declared 
that the national constitution gave him no 
power to do anything against the movement 
to break up the Union. After his succession 
by Abraham Lincoln in i860, Mr. Buchanan 
retired to his home at Wheatland, Pennsyl- 
vania, where he died June i, 1868. 



JOHN HARVARD, the founder of the 
Harvard University, was born in Eng- 
land about the year 1608. He received his 
education at Emanuel College, Cambridge, 
and came to America in 1637, settling in 
Massachusetts. He was a non-conformist 
minister, and a tract of land was set aside 
for him in Charlestown, near Boston He 
was at once appointed one of a committee to i 
formulate a body of laws for the colony. 
One year before his arrival in the colony [ 



the general court had voted the snm of four 
hundred pounds toward the establishment of 
a school or college, half of which was to be 
paid the next year In 1637 preliminary 
plans were made for starting the school. In 
1638 John Harvard, who had shown great 
interest in the new institution of learning 
proposed, died, leaving his entire property, 
about twice the sum originally voted, to the 
school, together with three hundred volumes 
as a nucleus for a library. The institution 
was then given the name of Harvard, and 
established at Newton (now Cambridge), 
Massachusetts. It grew to be one of the two 
principal seats of learning in the new world, 
and has maintained its reputation since. It 
now consists of twenty-two separate build- 
ings, and its curriculum embraces over one 
hundred and seventy elective courses, and it 
ranks among the great universities of the 
world. 

ROGER BROOKE TANEY, a noted 
jurist and chief justice of the United 
States supreme court, was born in Calvert 
county, Maryland, March 17, 1777. He 
graduated fiom Dickinson College at the 
age of eighteen, took up the study of law, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1799. He 
was chosen to the legislature from his county, 
and in 1801 removed to Frederick, Mary- 
land. He became United States senator 
from Maryland in 18 16, and took up his 
permanent residence in Baltimore a few 
years later. In 1824 he became an ardent 
admirer and supporter of Andrew Jackson, 
and upon Jackson's election to the presi- 
dency, was appointed attorney general of 
the United States. Two years later he was 
appointed secretary of the treasury, and 
after serving in that capacity for nearly one 
year, the senate refused to confirm the ap- 
pointment. In I S3 5, upon the death of 



130 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



Chief-justice Marshall, he was appointed to 
that place, and a political change having 
occurred in the make up of the senate, he 
was confirmed in 1S36. He presided at 
fais first session in January of the following 
year. 

The case which suggests itself first to 
the average reader in connection with this 
jurist is the celebrated " Dred Scott " case, 
which came before the supreme court for 
decision in 1856. In his opinion, delivered 
on behalf of a majority of the court, one 
remarkable statement occurs as a result of 
an exhaustive survey of the historical 
grounds, to the effect that " for more than 
a century prior to the adoption of the con- 
stitution they (Africans) had been regarded 
so far inferior that they had no rights which 
a white man was bound to respect." Judge 
Taney retained the office of chief justice 
until his death, in 1864. 



JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY.— This gen- 
tleman had a world-wide reputation as 
an historian, which placed him in the front 
rank of the great men of America. He was 
born April 15, 18 14, at Dorchester, Massa- 
chusetts, was given a thorough preparatory 
education and then attended Harvard, from 
which he was graduated in 183 1. He also 
studied at Gottingen and Berlin, read law 
and in 1836 was admitted to the bar. In 
1 84 1 he was appointed secretary of the 
legation at St. Petersburg, and in 1866-67 
served as United States minister to Austria, 
serving in the same capacity during 1869 
and 1870 to England. In 1856, after long 
and e.xhau tive research and prep-iration,he 
publisliid ill London "The Rise of the 
Dutch Repiibi'C. " It embraced three vol- 
umes and irn nediately attracted great at- 
tention throughout Europe and America as 
a work of unusual merit. From 1861 to 



1868 he produced "The History of the 
United Netherlands," in (our volumes. 
Other works followed, with equal success, 
and his position as one of the foremost his- 
torians and writers of his day was firmly 
established. His death occured May 29, 
1877. 

ELIAS HOWE, the inventor of the sew- 
ing machine, well deserves to be classed 
among the great and noted men of Amer- 
ica. He was the son of a miller and farmer 
and was born at Spencer, Massachusetts, 
July 9, 1819. In 1835 he went to Lowell 
and worked there, and later at Boston, in the 
machine shops. His first sewing machine 
was completed in 1845, and he patented it in 
1846, laboring with the greatest persistency 
in spite of poverty and haidships, working 
for a time as an engine driver on a railroad 
at pauper wages and with broken health. 
He then spent two years of unsuccessful ex- 
ertion in England, striving in vain to bring 
his invention into public notice and use. 
He returned to the United States in almost 
hopeless poverty, to find that his patent 
had been violated. At last, however, he 
found friends who assisted hini financially, 
and after years of litigation he made good 
his claims in the courts in 1 854. His inven- 
tion afterward brought him a large fortune. 
During the Civil war he volunteered as a 
private in the Seventeenth Connecticut Vol- 
unteers, and served for some time. During 
his life time he received the cross of the 
Legion of Honor and many other medals. 
His death occurred October 3, 1867, at 
Brooklvn, New York. 



PHILLIPS BROOKS, celebrated as an 
eloquent preacher and able pulpit ora- 
tor, was born in Boston on the 13th day of 
December, 1835. He received excellent 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



181 



educational advantages, and graduated at 
Harvard in 1855. Early in life he decided 
upon the ministry as his life work and 
studied theology in the Episcopal Theolog- 
ical Seminary, at Alexandria, Virginia. In 
1859 he was ordained and the same year 
became pastor of the Church of the Advent, 
in Philadelphia. Three years later he as- 
sumed the pastorate of the Church of the 
Holy Trinity, where he remained until 1870. 
At the expiration of that time he accepted 
the pastoral charge of Trinity Church in 
Boston, where his eloquence and ability at- 
tracted much attention and built up a pow- 
erful church organization. Dr. Brooks also 
devoted considerable time to lecturing and 
literary work and attained prominence in 
these lines. 

WILLIAM B. ALLISON, a statesman 
of national reputation and one of the 
leaders of the Republican part}', was born 
March 2, 1829, at Perry, Ohio. He grew 
up on his father's farm, which he assisted 
in cultivating, and attended the district 
school. When sixteen years old he went 
to the academy at Wooster, and subse- 
quently spent a year at the Allegheny Col- 
lege, at Meadville, Pennsylvania. He next 
taught school and spent another year at the 
Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio. 
Mr. Allison then took up the study of law 
at Wooster, where he was admitted to the 
barini85i, and soon obtained a position 
as deputy county clerk. His political lean- 
ings were toward the old line Whigs, who 
afterward laid the foundation of the Repub- 
lican party. He was a delegate to the state 
convention in 1856, in the campaign of 
which he supported Fremont for president. 
Mr Allison removed to Dubuque, Iowa, 
in the following year. He rapidly rose to 
prominence at the bar and in politics. In 



i860 he was chosen as a delegate to the 
Republican convention held in Chicago, of 
which he was elected one of the secretaries. 
At the outbreak of the civil war he was ap- 
pointed on the staff of the governor. His 
congressional career opened in 1862, when 
he was elected to the thirty-eighth congress; 
he was re-elected three times, serving from 
March 4, 1863, to March 3, 1871. Hewas 
a member of the ways and means committee 
a good part of his term. His career in the 
United States senate began in 1873, and he 
rapidly rose to eminence in national affairs, 
his service of a quarter of a century in that 
body being marked by close fealty to the 
Republican party. He twice declined the 
portfolio of the treasury tendered him by 
Garfield and Harrison, and his name was 
prominently mentioned for the presidency 
at several national Republican conventions. 



MARY ASHTON LIVERMORE, lec- 
turer and writer, was born in Boston, 
December 19, 1821. She was the daughter 
of Timothy Rice, and married D. P. Liver- 
more, a preacher of the Universalist church. 
She contributed able articles to many of the 
most noted periodicals of this country and 
England. During the Civil war she labored 
zealously and with success on behalf of the 
sanitary commission which played so impor- 
tant a part during that great struggle. She 
became editor of the " Woman's JournaJ," 
published at Boston in 1870. 

She held a prominent place as a public 
speaker and writer on woman's suffrage, 
temperance, social and religious questions, 
and her influence was great in every cause 
she advocated. 



JOHN B. GOUGH, a noted temperance 
lecturer, who won his fame in America, 
was born in the village of Sandgate, Kent, 



132 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



England, August 22, 18 17. He came to 
the United States at the age of twelve. 
He followed the trade of bookbinder, and 
lived in great poverty on account of the 
liquor habit. In 1843, however, he re- 
formed, and began his career as a temper- 
ance lecturer. He worked zealously in the 
cause of temperance, and his lectures and 
published articles revealed great earnestness. 
He formed temperance societies throughout 
the entire country, and labored with great 
success. He visited England in the same 
cause about the year 1S53 and again in 
1878. He also lectured upon many other 
topics, in which he attained a wide reputa- 
tion. His death occurred February 18, 
1886. 

THOMAS BUCHANAN READ, author, 
sculptor and painter, was born in Ches- 
ter county, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1822. 
He early evinced a taste for art, and began 
the study of sculpture in Cincinnati. Later 
he found painting more to his liking. He 
went to New York, where he followed this 
profession, and later to Boston. In 1846 
he located in Philadelphia. He visited 
Italy in 1850. and studied at Florence, 
where he resided almost continuously for 
twenty-two years. He returned to America 
in 1S72, and died in New York May 11 of 
the same year. 

He was the author of many heroic 
poems, but the one giving him the most re- 
nown is his famous "Sheridan's Ride," of 
which he has also left a representation in 
painting. 

EUGENE V. DEBS, the former famous 
president of the American Railway 
Union, and great labor leader, was born in 
the city of Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1855. 
He received his education in tlie public 



schools of that place and at the age of 
si.xteen years began work as a painter in 
the \'andalia shops. After this, for some 
three years, he was employed as a loco- 
motive fireman on the same road. His 
first appearance in public life was in his 
canvass for the election to the office of city 
clerk of Terre Haute. In this capacity he 
served two terms, and when twenty six 
years of age was elected a member of the 
legislature of the state of Indiana. While 
a member of that body he secured the 
passage of several bills in the interest of 
organized labor, of which he was always 
a faithful champion. Mr. Debs' speech 
nominating Daniel Voorhees for the United 
States senate gave him a wide reputation for 
oratory. On the expiration of his term in 
the legislature, he was elected grand secre- 
tary and treasurer of the Brotherhood of 
Locomotive 5'ireman and filled that office 
for fourteen successive years. He was 
always an earnest advocate of confederation 
of railroad men and it was mainly through 
his efforts that the United Order of Railway 
Employes, composed of the Brotherhood 
of Railway Trainmen and Conductors, 
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and 
the Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association was 
formed, and he became a member of its 
supreme council. The order was dissolved 
by disagreement between two of its leading 
orders, and then Mr. Debs conceived the 
idea of the American Railway Union. He 
worked on the details and the union came 
into existence in Chicago, June 20, 1893. For 
a time it prospered and became one of the 
largest bodies of railway men in the world. 
It won in a contest with the Great Northern 
Railway. In the strike made by the union 
in sympathy with the Pullman employes 
inaugurated in Chicago June 25, 1S94, and 
the consequent rioting, the Railway Union 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPllT. 



IbiJ 



lost much prestige and Mr. Debs, in company 
with others of the officers, being held as in con- 
tempt of the United States courts, he suffered 
a sentence of six months in jail at Wood- 
stock, McHenry county, Illinois. In 1897 
Mr. Debs, on the demise of the American 
Railway Union, organized the Social 
Democracy, an institution founded on the 
best lines of the communistic idea, which 
was to provide homes and employment for 
its members. 



JOHN G. CARLISLE, famous as a law- 
yer, congressman, senator and cabinet 
officer, was born in Campbell (now Kenton) 
county, Kentucky, September 5, 1835, on a 
farm. He received the usual education oi 
the time and began at an early age to teach 
school and, at the same time, the study of 
law. Soon opportunity offered and he 
entered an office in Covington, Kentucky, 
and was admitted to practice at the bar in 
1858. Politics attracted his attention and 
in 1859 he was elected to the house of rep- 
resentatives in the legislature of his native 
state. On the outbreak of the war in 1861, 
he embraced the cause of the Union and was 
largely instrumental in preserving Kentucky 
to the federal cause. He resumed his legal 
practice for a time and declined a nomina- 
tion as presidential elector in 1864. In 
1866 and again in i86g Mr. Carlisle was 
elected to the senate of Kentucky. He re- 
signed this position in 1871 and was chosen 
lieutenant governor of the state, which office 
he held until 1875. He was one of the 
presidential electors-at- large for Ken- 
tucky in 1876. He first entered congress in 
1877, and soon became a prominent leader 
on the Democratic side of the house of rep- 
resentatives, and continued a member of 
that body through the forty-sixth, forty- 
seventh, forty-eighth and forty-ninth con- 



gresses, and was speaker of the house during 
the two latter. He was elected to the 
United States senate to succeed Senator 
Blackburn, and remained a member of that 
branch of congress until March, 1893, when 
he was appointed secretary of the treasury. 
He performed the duties of that high office 
until March 4, 1897, throughout the en- 
tire second administration of President 
Cleveland. His ability and many years of 
public service gave him a national reputa- 
tion. 

FRANCES E. WILLARD, for many years 
president of the -Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union, and a noted American 
lecturer and writer, was born in Rochester, 
New York, September 28, 1839. Graduating 
from the Northwestern Female College at the 
age of nineteen she began teaching and met 
with great success in many cities of the west. 
She was made directress of Genesee Wes- 
leyan Seminary at Lima, Ohio, in 1867, and 
four years later was elected president of the 
Evanston College for young ladies, a branch 
of the Northwestern University. 

During the two years succeeding 1869 
she traveled extensively in Europe and the 
east, visiting Egypt and Palestine, and 
gathering materials for a valuable course of 
lectures, which she delivered at Chicago on 
her return. She became very popular, and 
won great influence in the temperance 
cause. Her work as president of the Wo- 
man's Christian Temperance Union greatly 
strengthened that society, and she made 
frequent trips to Europe in the mterest of 
that cause. 

RICHARD OLNEY.— Among the promi- 
nent men who were members of the 
cabinet of President Cleveland in his second 
administration, the gentleman whose nama 



IM 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr 



heads this sketch held a leading place, oc- 
cupying the positions of attorney general 
and secretary of state. 

Mr. Olney came from one of the oldest 
and most honored New England families; 
the first of his ancestors to come from Eng- 
land settled in Massachusetts in 1635. This 
was Thomas Olney. He was a friend and 
co-religionist of Roger Williams, and when 
the latter moved to what is now Rhode 
feland, went with him and became one of 
the founders of Providence Plantations. 

Richard Olney was born in Oxford, 
Massachusetts, in 1835, and received the 
elements of his earlier education in the com- 
mon schools which New England is so proud 
of. He entered Brown University, from 
which he graduated in 1856, and passed the 
Harvard law school two years later. He 
began the practice of his profession with 
Judge B. F. Thomas, a prominent man of 
that locality. For years Richard Olney was 
regarded as one of the ablest and most 
learned lawyers in Massachusetts. Twice 
he was offered a place on the bench of the 
supreme court of the state, but both times 
he declined. He was always a Democrat 
in his political tenets, and for many years 
was a trusted counsellor of members of that 
party. In 1874 Mr. Olney was elected a 
member of the legislature. In 1876, during 
the heated presidential campaign, to 
strengthen the cause of Mr. Tilden in the 
New England states, it was intimated that 
in the event of that gentleman's election to 
the presidency, Mr. Olney would be attor- 
Eey general. 

When Grover Cleveland was elected presi- 
''«*nt of the United States, on his inaugura- 
tion in March, 1S93, he tendered the posi- 
tion of attorney general to Richard Olney. 
This was accepted, and that gentleman ful- 
Wled the duties of the office until the death 



of Walter Q. Gresham, in May, 1895, made 
vacant the position of secretary of state. 
This post was filled by the appointment of 
Mr. Olney. While occupying the later 
office, Mr. Olney brought himself into inter- 
national prominence by some very able state 
papers. 

JOHN JAY KNOX, for many yearscomp- 
troller of the currency, and an eminent 
financier, was born in Kno.xboro, Oneida 
county, New York, May 19, 1828. He re- 
ceived a good education and graduated at 
Hamilton College in 1849. p'or about 
thirteen years he was engaged as a private 
banker, or in a position in a bank, where 
he laid the foundation of his knowledge of 
the laws of finance. In 1862, Salmon P. 
Chase, then secretary of the treaiury, ap- 
pointed him to an office in that department 
of the government, and later he had charge 
of the mint coinage correspondence. In 1867 
Mr. Knox was made deputy comptroller 
of the currency, and in that capacity, in 
1870. he made two reports on the mint 
service, with a codification of the mint and 
ccinage laws of the United States, and 
suggesting many important amendments 
These reports were ordered printed by reso- 
lution of congress. The bill which he pre- 
pared, with some slight changes, was sub- 
sequently passed, and has been known in 
history as the " Coinage Act of 1873." 

In 1872 Mr. Knox wrs appointed comp- 
troller of the currency, and held that re- 
sponsible position until 1884, when he re- 
signed. He then accepted the position of 
president of the National Bank of the Re- 
public, of New York City, which institution 
he served for many years. He was the 
authorof " United States Notes," published 
in 1884. In the reports spoken of above, a 
history of the two United States banks is 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



135 



given, together with that of the state and 
national banking system, and much valuable 
statistical matter relating to kindred sub- 
jects. 

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.— In the 
opinion of many critics Hawthorne is 
pronounced the foremost American novelist, 
and in his peculiar vein of romance is said 
to be without a peer. His reputation is 
world-wide, and his ability as a writer is 
recognized abroad as well as at home. 
He was born July 4, 1804, at Salem, Massa- 
chusetts. On account of feeble health he 
spent some years of his boyhood on a farm 
near Raymond, Maine. He laid the foun- 
dation of a liberal education in his youth, 
and entered Bowdoin College, from which 
he graduated in 1825 in the same class with 
H W Longfellow and John S. C. Abbott. 
He then returned to Salem, where he gave 
his attention to literature, publishing several 
tales and other articles in various periodi- 
cals. His first venture in the field of ro- 
mance, " Fanshaw,' proved a failure. In 
1836 he removed to Boston, and became 
editor of the "American Magazine," which 
soon passed out of existence. In 1837 he 
published " Twice Told Tales," which were 
chiefly made up of his former contributions 
to magazines. In 1838-41 he held a posi- 
tion in the Boston custom house, but later 
took part in the " Brook farm c.vperiment," 
a socialistic idea after the plan of Fourier. 
In 1843 he was married and took up his 
residence at the old parsonage at Concord, 
Massachusetts, which lie immortalized in 
his next work, "Mosses From an Old 
Manse," published in 1846. From the lat- 
ter date until 1850 he was surveyor of the 
port of Salem, and while thus employed 
wrote one of his strongest works, "The 
Scarlet Letter." For the succeeding two 

8 



years Lenox, Massachusetts, was his home, 
and the " House of the Seven Gables" was 
produced there, as well as the " Blithedale 
Romance." In 1852 he published a "Life 
of Franklin Pierce, "a college friend whom 
he warmly regarded. In 1853 he was ap- 
pointed United States consul to Liverpool, 
England, where he remained some years, 
after which he spent some time in Italy. 
On returning to his native land he took up 
his residence at Concord, Massachusetts. 
While taking a trip for his health with e.\- 
President Pierce, he died at Plymouth, New 
Hampshire, May 19, 1864. In addition to 
the works mentioned above Mr. Hawthorne 
gave to the world the following books: 
" True Stories from History," "The Won- 
der Book," " The Snow Image," "Tangle- 
wood Tales," "The Marble Faun," and 
" Our Old Home. " After his death appeared 
a series of "Notebooks," edited by his wife, 
Sophia P. Hawthorne; " Septimius Felton," 
edited by his daughter, Una, and " Dr. 
Grimshaw's Secret," put into shape by his 
talented son, Julian. He left an unfinished 
work called " Dolliver Romance," which has 
been published just as he left it. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, sixteenth presi- 
dent of the United States, was born 
February 12, 1809, in Larue county (Har- 
din county), Kentucky, in a log-cabin near 
Hudgensville. When he was eight years 
old he removed with his parents to Indiana, 
near the Ohio river, and a year later his 
mother died. His father then married Mrs. 
Elizabeth (Bush) Johnston, of Elizabeth- 
town, Kentucky, who proved a kind of fos- 
ter-mother to Abraham, and encouraged 
him to study. He worked as a farm hand 
and as a clerk in a store at Gentryville, and 
was noted for his athletic feats and strength, 
fondness for debate, a fund of humorous 



136 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



anecdote, as well as the composition of rude 
verses. He made a trip at the age of nine- 
teen to New Orleans on a flat-boat, and set- 
tled in Illinois in 1830. He assisted his 
father to build a log house and clear a farm 
on the Sangamon river near Decatur, Illinois, 
and split the rails with which to fence it. In 
185 1 he was employed in the building of a 
flat-boat on the Sangamon, and to run it to 
New Orleans. The voyage gave him a new 
insight into the horrors of slavery in the 
south. On his return he settled at New 
Salem and engaged, first as a clerk in a store, 
then as grocer, surveyor and postmaster, and 
he piloted the first steamboat that as- 
cended the Sangamon. He participated in 
the Black Hawk war as captain of volun- 
teers, and after his return he studied law, 
interested himself in politics, and became 
prominent locally as a public speaker. He 
was elected to the legislature in 1834 as a 
" Clay Whig, " and began at once to dis- 
play a command of language and forcible 
rhetoric that made him a match for his 
more cultured opponents. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1837, and began prac- 
tice at Springfield. He married a lady of a 
prominent Kentucky family in 1842. He 
was active in the presidential campaigns of 
1840 and 1844 and was an elector on the 
Harrison and Clay tickets, and was elected 
to congress in 1846, over Peter Cartwright. 
He voted for the Wiimot proviso and the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, and opposed the war with Mexico, but 
gained little prominence during his two 
years' service. He then returned to Spring- 
field and devoted his attention to law, tak- 
ing little interest in politics, until the repeal 
of the Missouri compromise and the passage 
of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854. This 
awakened his interest in politics again and 
he attacked the champion of that measure, 



Stephen A. Douglas, in a speech at Spring- 
field that made him famous, and is said 
by those who heard it to be the greatest 
speech of his life. Lincoln was selected as 
candidate for the United States senate, but 
was defeated by Trumbull. Upon the pas- 
sage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill the Whig 
party suddenly went to pieces, and the Re- 
publican party gathered head. At the 
Bloomington Republican convention in 1856 
Lincoln made an effective address in which 
he first took a position antagonistic to the ex- 
istence of slavery. He was a Fremont elector 
and received a strong support for nomina- 
tion as vice-president in the Philadelphia 
convention. In 1858 he was the unanimous 
choice of the Republicans for the United 
States senate, and the great campaign of de- 
bate which followed resulted in the election 
of Douglas, but established Lincoln's repu- 
tation as the leading exponent of Republican 
doctrines. He began to be mentioned in 
Illinois as candidate for the presidency, and 
a course of addresses in the eastern states 
attracted favorable attention. When the 
national convention met at Chicago, his 
rivals. Chase, Seward, Bates and others, 
were compelled to retire before the western 
giant, and he was nominated, with Hannibal 
Hamlin as his running mate. The Demo- 
cratic party had now been disrupted, and 
Lincoln's election assured. He carried 
practically every northern state, and the 
secession of South Carolina, followed by a 
number of the gulf states, took place before 
his inauguration. Lincoln is the only presi- 
dent who was ever compelled to reach 
Washington in a secret manner. He es- 
caped assassination by avoiding Baltimore, 
and was quietly inaugurated March 4, t86i. 
His inaugural address was firm but con- 
ciliatory, and he said to the secessionists: 
"You have no oath registered in heavea 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAP/fr. 



18T 



to destroy the government, while I have the 
most solemn one to preserve, protect and 
defend it.' He made up his cabinet chiefly 
of those political rivals in his own party — 
Seward. Chase, Cameron, Bates — and se- 
cured the co-operation of the Douglas Dem- 
o.rats. His great deeds, amidst the heat 
and turmoil of war, were: His call for 
seventy-five thousand volunteers, and the 
blockading of southern ports; calling of con- 
gress in extra session, July 14, 1861, and 
obtaining four hundred thousand men and 
four hundred million dollars for the prosecu- 
tion of the war; appointing Stanton secre- 
tary of war; issuing the emancipation proc- 
lamation; calling three hundred thou- 
sand volunteers; address at Gettysburg 
cemetery; commissioned Grant as lieuten- 
ant-general and commander-in-chief of the 
armies of the United States; his secontl 
inaugural address; his visit to the army be- 
fore Richmond, and his entry into Rich- 
mond the day after its surrender. 

Abraham Lincoln was shot by John 
Wilkes Booth in a box in Ford's theater 
at Washington the night of April 14, 1865. 
and expired the following morning. His 
body was buried at Oak Ridge cemetery, 
Springfield, Illinois, and a monument com- 
memorating his great work marks his resting 
place. 

STEPHEN GIRARD, the celebrated 
philanthropist, was born in Bordeaux, 
France, May 24, 1750. He became a sailor 
engaged in the American coast trade, and 
also made frequent trips to the West Indies. 
During the Revolutionary war he was a 
grocer and liquor seller in Philadelphia. 
He married in that city, and afterward 
separated from his wife. After the war he 
again engaged in the coast and West India 
trade, and his fortuiie began to accumulate 



from receiving goods from West Indian 
planters during the insurrection in Hayti, 
little of which was ever called for again. 
He became a private banker in Philadelphia 
in 181 2, and afterward was a director in the 
United States Bank. He made much money 
by leasing property in the city in times of 
depression, and upon the revival of industry 
sub-leasing at enormous profit. He became 
the wealthiest citizen of the United States 
of his time. 

He was eccentric, ungracious, and a 
freethinker. He had few, if any, friends in 
his lifetime. However, he was most chari- 
tably disposed, and gave to charitable in- 
stitutions and schools with a liberal hand. 
He did more than any one else to relieve 
the suffering and deprivations during the 
great yellow fever scourge in Philadelphia, 
devoting his personal attention to the sick. 
He endowed and made a free institution, 
the famous Will's Eye and Ear Infirmary 
of Philadelphia — one of the largest institu- 
tions of its kind in the world. At his death 
practically all his immense wealth was be- 
queathed to charitable institutions, more 
than two millions of dollars going to the 
founding of Girard College, which was to 
be devoted to the education and training of 
boys between the ages of six and ten years. 
Large donations were also made to institu- 
tions in Philadelphia and New Orleans. 
The principal building of Girard College is 
the most magnificent example of Greek 
architecture in America. Girard died De- 
cember 26, 183 1. 



LOUIS J. R. AGASSIZ, the eminent nat- 
uralist and geologist, was born in the 
parish of Motier, near Lake Neuchatel, Swit- 
zerland, May 28, 1807, but attained his 
greatest fame after becoming an American 
citizen. He studied the medical sciences at 



138 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich. His first 
work was a Latin description of the fishes 
which Martius and Spix brought from Brazil. 
This was published in 1 829-3 1 • He devoted 
much time to the study of fossil fishes, and 
in 1832 was appointed professor of natural 
history at Neuchatel. He greatly increased 
his reputation by a great work in French, 
entitled " Researches on Fossil Fishes," in 
1832-42, in which he made many important 
improvements in the classification of fishes. 
Having passed many summers among the 
Alps in researches on glaciers, he propounded 
some new and interesting ideas on geology, 
and the agency of glaciers in his "Studies 
by the Glaciers." This was published in 
1840. This latter work, with his " System 
of the Glaciers," published in 1847, are 
among his principal works. 

In 1846, Professor Agassiz crossed the 
ocean on a scientific excursion to the United 
States, and soon determined to remain here. 
He accepted, about the beginning of 1848, 
the chair of zoology and geology at Harvard. 
He explored the natural history of the 
United States at different times and gave an 
impulse to the study of nature in this 
country. In 1865 he conducted an expedi- 
tion to Brazil, and explored the lower Ama- 
zon and its tributaries. In 1868 he was 
made non-resident professor of natural his- 
tory at Cornell University. In December, 
1 87 1, he accompanied the Hassler expedi- 
tion, under Professor Pierce, to the South 
Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He died at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 14, 

1873- 

Among other of the important works of 
Professor Agassiz may be mentioned the fol- 
lowing: "Outlines of Comparative Physi- 
ology," "Journey to Brazil," and "Contri- 
butions to the Natural History of the United 
States." It is said of Professor Agassiz, 



that, perhaps, with the exception of Hugh 
Miller, no one had so popularized science in 
his day, or trained so many young natural- 
ists. Many of the theories held by Agassiz 
are not supported by many of the natural- 
ists of these later days, but upon many of 
the speculations into the origin of species and 
in physics he has left the marks of his own 
strongly marked individuality. 



WILLIAM WINDOM.— As a prominent 
and leading lawyer of the great north- 
west, as a member of both houses of con- 
gress, and as the secretary of the treasury, 
the gentleman whose name heads this sketch 
won for himself a prominent position in the 
history of our country. 

Mr. Windom was a native of Ohio, 
born in Belmont county. May 10, 1827. 
He received a good elementary education m 
the schools of his native state, and took up 
the study of law. He was admitted to the 
bar, and entered upon the practice of his 
profession in Ohio, where he remained until 
1855. In the latter year he made up his 
mind to move further west, and accordingly 
went to Minnesota, and opening an office, 
became identified with the interests of that 
state, and the northwest generally. In 
1858 he took his place in the Minnesota 
delegation in the national house of repre- 
sentatives, at Washington, and continued 
to represent his constituency in that body 
for ten years. In 1871 Mr. Windom was 
elected United States senator from Min- 
nesota, and was re-elected to the same office 
after fulfilling the duties of the position for 
a full term, in 1876. On the inauguration 
of President Garfield, in March, 1881, Mr. 
Windom became secretary of the treasury 
in his cabinet. He resigned this office Oc- 
tober 27, 1 88 1, and was elected senator 
from the North Star state to fill the va- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



139- 



cancy caused by the resignation of A. J. 
Edgerton. Mr. Windoin served in that 
chamber until March, 1883. 

WilHain \\'indom died in New York 
City January 29, 1891. 



DON M. DICKINSON, an American 
poHtician and lawyer, was born in 
Port Ontario, New York, January 17, 1S46. 
He removed with his parents to Michigan 
when he was but two years old. He was 
educated in the public schools of Detroit 
and at the University of Michigan at Ann 
Arbor, and was admitted to the bar at the 
age of twenty-one. In 1872 he was made 
secretary of the Democratic state central 
committee of Michigan, and his able man- 
agement of the campaign gave him a prom- 
inent place in the councils of his party. In 
1876, during the Tilden campaign, he acted 
as chairman of the state central committee. 
He was afterward chosen to represent his 
state in the Democratic national committee, 
and in 1886 he was appointed postmaster- 
general by President Cleveland. After the 
expiration of his term of office he returned 
to Detroit and resumed the practice of law. 
In the presidential campaign of 1896, Mr. 
Dickinson adhered to the "gold wing" of 
the Democracy, and his influence was felt 
in the national canvass, and especially in 
his own state. 



JOHN JACOB ASTOR, the founder of 
the Astor family and fortunes, while not 
a native of this country, was one of the 
most noted men of his time, and as all his 
wealth and fame were acquired here, he 
may well be classed among America's great 
men. He was born near Heidelberg, Ger- 
many, July 17, 1763, and when twenty 
years old emigrated to the United States. 
Even at that age he exhibited remarkable 



business ability and foresight, and soon he 
was investing capital in furs which he took 
to London and sold at a great profit. He 
next settled at New York, and engaged ex- 
tensively in the fur trade. He exported 
furs to Europe in his own vessels, which re- 
turned with cargoes of foreign commodities, 
and thus he rapidly amassed an immense 
fortune. In 181 i he founded Astoria on 
the western coast of North America, near 
the mouth of the Columbia river, as a depot 
for the fur trade, for the promotion of 
which he sent a number of expeditions to 
the Pacific ocean. He also purchased a 
large amount of real estate in New York, 
the value of which increased enormously 
All through life his business ventures were 
a series of marvelous successes, and he 
ranked as one of the most sagacious and 
successful business men in the world. He 
diea March 29, 1848, leaving a fortune es- 
timated at over twenty million dollars to 
his children, who have since increased it. 
John Jacob Astor left $400,000 to found a 
public library in New York City, and his son, 
William B. Astor, who died in 1875, left 
$300,000 to add to his father's bequest. 
This is known as the Astor Library, one of 
the largest in the United States. 



SCHUYLER COLFAX, an eminent 
American statesman, was born in New 
York City, March 23, 1S23, being a grand- 
son of General William Colfax, the com- 
mander of Washington's life-guards. In 
1836 he removed with his mother, who was 
then a widow, to Indiana, settling at South 
Bend. Young Schuyler studied law, and 
in 1845 became editor of the "St. Joseph 
Valley Register," a Whig paper published 
at South Bend. He was a member of the 
convention which formed a new constitu- 
tion fur Indiana in 1850, and he opposed 



140 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



the clause that prohibited colored men 
from settling in that state. In 1851 he was 
defeated as the Whig candidate for congress 
but was elected in 1854, and, being repeat- 
edly re-elected, continued to represent that 
district in congress until 1869. He became 
one of the most prominent and influential 
members of the house of representatives, 
and served three terms as speaker. During 
the Civil war he was an active participant 
in all public measures of importance, and 
was a confidential friend and adviser of 
President Lincoln. In May, 1868, Mr. 
Colfax was nominated for vice-president on 
the ticket with General Grant, and was 
elected. After the close of his term he re- 
tired from office, and for the retnainder of 
his life devoted much of his time to lectur- 
ing and literary pursuits. His death oc- 
curred January 23, 1885. He was one of 
the most prominent members of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows in America, 
and that order erected a bronze statue to 
his memory in University Park. Indianapo- 
lis, Indiana, which was unveiled in May, 
1887. 

WILLIAM FREEMAN VILAS, who at- 
tained a national reputation as an able 
lawyer, statesman, and cabinet officer, was 
born at Chelsea, Vermont, July 9, 1840. 
His parents removed to Wisconsin when 
our subject was but eleven years of age, 
and there with the early settlers endured all 
the hardships and trials incident to pioneer 
life. William F. Vilas was given all the 
advantages found in the common schools, 
and supplemented this by a course of study 
in the Wisconsin State University, after 
which he studied law, was admitted to the 
bar and began practicing at Madison. 
Shortly afterward the Civil war broke out 
.and Mr. Vilas enlisted and became colonel 



of the Twenty-third regiment of Wisconsin 
Volunteers, serving throughout the war with 
distinction. At the close of the war he re- 
turned to Wisconsin, resumed his law prac- 
tice, and rapidly rose to eminence in this 
profession. In 18S5 he was selected by 
President Cleveland for postmaster-general 
and at the close of his term again returned 
to Madison, Wisconsin, to resume the prac- 
tice of law. 

THOMAS McINTYRE COOLEY, an em- 
inent American jurist and law writer, 
was born in Attica, New York, January 6, 
1824. He was admitted to the bar in 1846, 
and four years later was appointed reporter 
of the supreme court of Michigan, which 
office he continued to hold for seven years. 
In the meantime, in 1859, he became pro- 
fessor of the law department of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, and soon afterward was 
made dean of the faculty of that depart- 
ment. In 1864 he was elected justice of 
the supreme court of Michigan, in 1867 be- 
came chief justice of that court, and in 
1869 was re-elected for a term of eight 
years. In 1881 he again joined the faculty 
of the University of Michigan, assuming the 
professorship of constitutional and adminis- 
trative law. His works on these branches 
have become standard, and he is recog- 
nized as authority on this and related sub- 
jects. Upon the passage of the inter-state 
commerce law in 1887 he became chairman 
of the commission and served in that capac- 
ity four years. 



TOHN PETER ALTGELD, a noted 
vj American politician and writer on social 
questions, was born in Germany, December 
30, 1847. He came to America with his 
parents and settled in Ohio when two years 
old. In 1864 he entered the Union army 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



141 



and served till the close of the war, after 
which he settled in Chicago, Illinois. He 
was elected judge of the superior court of 
Cook county, Illinois, in i8S6, in which 
capacity he served until elected governor of 
Illinois in 1892, as a Democrat. During 
the first year of his term as governor he at- 
tracted national attention by his pardon of 
the anarchists convicted of the Haymarket 
murder in Chicago, and again in 1894 by 
his denunciation of President Cleveland for 
calling out federal troops to suppress the 
rioting in connection with the great Pull- 
man strike in Chicago. At the national 
convention of the Democratic party in Chi- 
cago, in July, 1896, he is said to have in- 
spired the clause in the platform denuncia- 
tory of interference by federal authorities in 
local affairs, and "government by injunc- 
tion." He was gubernatorial candidate for 
re-election on the Democratic ticket in 1896, 
but was defeated by John R. Tanner, Re- 
publican. Mr. Altgeld published two vol- 
umes of essays on " Live Questions," evinc- 
ing radical views on social matters. 



ADLAI EWING STEVENSON, an Amer. 
ican statesman and politician, was born 
in Christian county, Kentucky, October 23, 
1835, and removed with the family to 
Bloomington, Illinois, in 1852. He was 
admitted to the bar in 185S, and set- 
tled in the practice of his profession 
in Metamora, Illinois. In 1861 he was 
made master in chancery of Woodford 
county, and in 1864 was elected state's at- 
torney. In 1868 he returned to Blooming- 
ton and formed a law partnership with 
James S. Ewing. He had served as a pres- 
idential elector in 1864, and in 18C8 was 
elected to congress as a Democrat, receiv- 
ing a majority vote from every county in his 
district. He became prominent in his 



party, and was a delegate to the national 
convention in 1884. On the election of 
Cleveland to the presidency Mr. Stevenson 
was appointed first assistant- postmaster- 
general. After the expiration of his term 
he continued to exert a controlling influence 
in the politics of his state, and in 1892 was 
elected vice-president of the United States 
on the ticket with Grover Cleveland. At 
the expiration of his term of office he re- 
sumed the practice of law at Bloomington, 
Illinois. 

SIMON CAMERON, whose name is 
prominently identified with the history 
of the United States as a political leadef 
and statesman, was born in Lancaster coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1799. He grew 
to manhood in his native county, receiving 
good educational advantages, and develop- 
ing a natural inclination for political life. 
He rapidly rose in prominence and became 
the most influential Democrat in PennsyJ' 
vania, and in 1845 was elected by that party 
to the United States senate. Upon the 
organization of the Republican party he was 
one of the first to declare his allegiance to 
it, and in 1856 was re-elected United States 
senator from Pennsylvania as a Republican. 
In March, 1861, he was appointed secretary 
of war by President Lincoln, and served 
until early in 1862, when he was sent as 
minister to Russia, returning in 1863. In 
1866 he was again elected United States 
senator and served until 1S77, when he re- 
signed and was succeeded by his son, James 
Donald Cameron. He continued to e.xert a 
powerful influence in political affairs up to 
the time of his death, June 26, 18S9. 

James Donald Cameron was the eld- 
est son of Simon Cameron, and also 
attained a high rank among American 
statesmen. He was born at Harrisburg, 



14S 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Pennsylvania, May 14, 1833, and received an 
excellent education, graduating at Princeton 
College in 1852. He rapidly developed into 
one of the most able and successful business 
men of the country and was largely inter- 
ested in and identified with the develop- 
ment of the coal, iron, lumber and manu- 
facturing interests of his native state. He 
served as cashier and afterward president of 
the Middletown bank, and in 1861 was made 
vice-president, and in 1863 president of 
the Northern Central railroad, holding this 
position until 1874, when he resigned and 
was succeeded by Thomas A. Scott. This 
road was of great service to the government 
during the war as a means of communica- 
tion between Pennsylvania and the national 
capital, via Baltimore. Mr. Cameron also 
took an active part in political affairs, 
always as a Republican. In May, 1876, 
he was appointed secretary of war in Pres- 
ident Grant's cabinet, and in 1877 suc- 
ceeded his father in the United States 
senate. He w'as re-elected in 1885, and 
again in 1891, serving until 1896, and was 
recognized as one of the most prominent and 
influential members of that bodv. 



ADOLPHUS W. GREELEY, a famous 
American arctic explorer, was born at 
Nevvburyport, Massachusetts, March 27, 
1844. He graduated from Brown High 
School at the age of sixteen, and a year 
later enlisted in Company B, Nineteenth 
Massachusetts Infantrj', and was made first 
sergeant. In 1863 he was promoted to 
second lieutenant. After the war he was 
assigned to the Fifth United States Cavalry, 
and became first lieutenant in 1873. He 
was assigned to duty in the United States 
signal service shortly after the close of the 
war. An expedition was fitted out by the 
United States government in 1881, un- 



der auspices of the weather bureau, and 
Lieutenant Greeley placed in command. 
They set sail from St. Johns the first week 
in July, and after nine days landed in Green- 
land, where they secured the services of two 
natives, together with sledges, dogs, furs 
and equipment. They encountered an ice 
pack early in August, and on the 28th of 
that month freezing weather set in. Two 
of his party. Lieutenant Lockwood and Ser- 
geant Brainard, added to the known maps 
about forty miles of coast survey, and 
reached the highest point yet attained by 
man, eighty-three degrees and twenty-four 
minutes north, longitude, forty-four degrees 
and five minutes west. On their return to 
Fort Conger, Lieutenant Greeley set out 
for the south on August 9, 1883. He 
reached Baird Inlet twenty da}S later with 
his entire party. Here they were compelled 
to abandon their boats, and drifted on an 
ice-floe for one month. They then went 
into camp at Cape Sabine, where they suf- 
fered untold hardships, and eighteen of the 
party succumbed to cold and hunger, and 
had relief been delayed two days longer 
none would have been found alive. They 
were picked up by the relief expedition, 
under Captain Schley, June 22, 1884. The 
dead were taken to New York for burial. 
Many sensational stories were published 
concerning the expedition, and Lieutenant 
Greeley prepared an exhaustive account 
of his explorations and experiences. 



LEVI P. MORTON, the millionaire poli- 
tician, was born in Shoreham, Ver- 
mont, May 16, 1824, and his early educa- 
tion consisted of the rudiments which he 
obtained in the common school up to the 
age of fourteen, and after that time what 
knowledge he gained was wrested from the 
hard school of experience. He removed to 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



148 



Hanover, Vermont, then Concord, Vermont, 
and afterwards to Boston. He had worked 
in a store at Shoreham, his native village, 
and on going to Hanover he established a 
store and went into business for himself. 
In Boston he clerked in a dry goods store, 
and then opened a business of his own in 
the same line in New York. After a short 
career he failed, and was compelled to set- 
tle with his creditors at only fifty cents on 
the dollar. He began the struggle anew, 
and when the war began he established a 
banking house in New York, with Junius 
Morgan as a partner. Through his firm 
and connections the great government war 
loans were floated, and it resulted in im- 
mense profits to his house. When he was 
again thoroughly established he invited his 
former creditors to a banquet, and under 
each guest's plate was found a check cover- 
ing the amount of loss sustained respec- 
tively, with interest to date. 

President Garfield appointed Mr. Mor- 
ton as minister to France, after he had de- 
clined the secretaryship of the navy, and in 
1888 he was nominated as candidate for 
vice-president, with Harrison, and elected. 
In 1894 he was elected governor of New 
York over David B. Hill, and served one 
term. 

CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, one 
of the most talented and prominent 
educators this country has known, was born 
January 24, 1835, at Derby, Vermont. He 
received an elementary education in the 
common schools, and studied two terms in 
the Derby Academy. Mr. Adams moved 
with his parents to Iowa in 1856. He was 
very anxious to pursue a collegiate course, 
but this was impossible until he had attained 
the age of twenty-one. In the autumn of 
1856 he began the study of Latin and Greek 



at Denmark Academy, and in September, 
1857, he was admitted to the University of 
Michigan. Mr. Adams was wholly depend- 
ent upon himself for the means of his edu- 
cation. During his third and fourth year 
he became deeply interested in historical 
studies, was assistant librarian of the uni- 
versity, and determined to pursue a post- 
graduate course. In 1864 he was appointed 
instructor of history and Latin and was ad- 
vanced to an assistant professorship in 1865, 
and in 1867, on the resignation o\ Professoi 
White to accept the presidency of Cornell, 
he was appointed to fill the chair of profes- 
sor of history. This he accepted on con- 
dition of his being allowed to spend a year 
for special study in Germany, France and 
Italy. Mr. Adams returned in 1868, and 
assumed the duties of his professorship. 
He introduced the German system for the 
instruction of advanced history classes, and. 
his lectures were largely attended. In 1885^ 
on the resignation of President White at 
Cornell, he was elected his successor and 
held the office for seven years, and on Jan- 
uary 17, 1893, he was inaugurated presi- 
dent of the University of Wisconsin. Pres- 
ident Adams was prominently connected 
with numerous scientific and literary organ- 
izations and a frequent contributor to the 
historical and educational data in the peri- 
odicals and journals of the country. He 
was the author of the following: " Dem- 
ocracy and Monarchy in France," " Manual 
of Historical Literature," " A Pica for Sci- 
entific Agriculture," " Higher Education in 
Germany." 

JOSEPH B. FORAKER, a prominent po- 
litical leader and e.\-governor of Ohio, 
was born near Rainsboro, Highland county, 
Ohio, July 5, 1846. His parents operated 
a small farm, with a grist and sawmill, hav- 



144 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



ing emigrated hither from Virginia and 
Delaware on account of their distaste for 
slavery. 

Joseph was reared upon a farm until 
1862, when he enlisted in the Eighty-ninth 
Ohio Infantry. Later he was made ser- 
geant, and in 1S64 commissioned first lieu- 
tenant. The next year he was brevetted 
captain. At the age of nineteen he was 
mustered out of the army after a brilliant 
service, part of the time being on the staff 
of General Slocum. He participated in the 
battles of Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mount- 
ain and Kenesaw Mountain and in Sher- 
man's march to the sea. 

For two years subsequent to the war 
young Foraker was studying at the Ohio 
Wesleyan University at Delaware, but later 
■went to Cornell University, at Unity, New 
York, from which he graduated July i, 
1869. He studied law and was admitted to 
the bar. In 1879 Mr. Foraker was elected 
judge of the superior court of Cincinnati 
and held the office for three years. In 1883 
he was defeated in the contest for the gov- 
ernorship with Judge Hoadly. In 1885, 
however, being again nominated for the 
same office, he was elected and served two 
terms. In 1889, in running for governor 
again, this time against James E. Camp- 
bell, he was defeated. Two years later his 
career in the United States senate began. 
Mr. Foraker was always a prominent figure 
at all national meetings of the Republican 
party, and a strong power, politically, in his 
native state. 



LYMAN ABBOTT, an eminent American 
preacher and writer on religious sub- 
jects, came of a noted New England 
family. His father. Rev. Jacob Abbott, was 
a prolific and popular writer, and his uncle. 
Rev. John S. C. Abbott, was a noted 



preacher and author. Lyman Abbott was 
born December 18, 1835, '" Roxbury, 
Massachusetts. He graduated at the New 
York University, in 1853, studied law, and 
practiced for a time at the bar, after which 
he studied theology with his uncle. Rev. 
John S. C. Abbott, and in i860 was settled 
in the ministry at Terre Haute, Indiana, re- 
maining there until after the close of the 
war. He then became connected with the 
Freedmen's Commission, continuing this 
until 1868, when he accepted the pastorate 
of the New England Congregational church, 
in New York City. A few years later he re- 
signed, to devote his time principally to lit- 
erary pursuits. For a number of years he 
edited for the American Tract Society, its 
"Illustrated Christian Weekly," also the 
New York "Christian Union." He pro- 
duced many works, which had a wide circu- 
lation, among which may be mentioned the 
following: "Jesus of Nazareth, His Life and 
Teachings," "Old Testament Shadows of 
New Testament Truths," "Morning and 
Evening Exercises, Selected from Writings 
of Henry Ward Beecher," " Laicus, or the 
Experiences of a Layman in a Country 
Parish," "Popular Religious Dictionary," 
and "Commentaries on Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, John and Acts." 



GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.— The 
well-known author, orator and journal- 
ist whose name heads this sketch, was born 
at Providence, Rhode Island, February 24, 
1824. Having laid the foundation of a 
most excellent education in his native land, 
he went to Europe and studied at the Uni- 
versity of Berlin. He made an extensive 
tour throughout the Levant, from which he 
returned home in 1850. At that early age 
literature became his field of labor, and in 
1851 he published his first important work. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



145 



" Nile Notes of a Howadji." In 1852 two 
works issued from his facile pen, "The 
Howadji in Syria," and "Lotus-Eating." 
Later on he was the author of the well- 
known " Potiphar Papers," " Prue and L" 
and "Trumps." He greatly distinguished 
himself throughout this land as a lecturer 
on many subjects, and as an orator had but 
few peers. He was also well known as one 
of the most fluent speakers on the stump, 
making many political speeches in favor of 
the Republican party. In recognition of 
his valuable services, Mr. Curtis was ap- 
pointed by President Grant, chairman of 
the advisory board of the civil service. Al- 
though a life-long Republican, Mr. Curtis 
refused to support Blaine for the presidency 
in 1884, because of his ideas on civil ser- 
vice and other reforms. For his memorable 
and magnificent eulogy on Wendell Phillips, 
delivered in Boston, in 1884, that city pre- 
sented Mr. Curtis with a gold medal. 

George W. Curtis, however, is best 
known to the reading public of the United 
States by his connection with the Harper 
Brothers, having been editor of the "Har- 
per's Weekly," and of the " Easy Chair," 
in " Harper's Monthly Magazine, "for many 
years, in fact retaining that position until 
the day of his death, which occurred August 
31. 1892- 

ANDREW JOHNSON, the seventeenth 
president of the United States, served 
from 1865 to 1869. He was born Decem- 
ber 8, 1808, at Raleigh, North Carolina, 
and was left an orphan at the age of four 
years. He never attended school, and was 
apprenticed to a tailor. While serving his 
apprenticeship he suddenly acquired a pas- 
sion for knowledge, and learned to read. 
From that time on he spent all his spare 
time in reading, and after working for two 



years as a journeyman tailor at Lauren's 
Court House, South Carolina, he removed 
to Greenville, Tennessee, where he worked 
at his trade and was married. Under his 
wife's instruction he made rapid progress in 
his studies and manifested such an interest 
in local politics as to be elected as " work- 
ingmen's candidate " alderman in 1S28, and 
in 1830 to the mayoralty, and was twice 
re-elected to each office. Mr. Johnson 
utilized this time in cultivating his talents 
as a public speaker, by taking part in a de- 
bating society. He was elected in 1835 to 
the lower house of the legislature, was re- 
elected in 1839 as a Democrat, and in 
1 84 1 was elected state senator. Mr. John- 
son was elected representative in congress 
in 1843 ^'^^ was re-elected four times in 
succession until 1853, when he was the suc- 
cessful candidate for the gubernatorial chair 
of Tennessee. He was re-elected in 1855 
and in 1857 he entered the United States 
senate. In i860 he was supported by the 
Tennessee delegation to the Democratic 
convention for the presidential nomination, 
and lent his influence to the Breckinridge 
wing of the party. At the election of Lin- 
coln, which brought about the first attempt 
at secession in December, i860, Mr. John- 
son took a firm attitude in the senate for 
the Union. He was the leader of the loy- 
alists in East Tennessee. By the course 
that Mr. Johnson pursued in this crisis he 
was brought prominently before the north- 
ern people, and when, in March, 1862, he 
was appointed military governor of Ten- 
nessee with the rank of brigadier-general, 
he increased his popularity by the vigorous 
manner in which he labored to restore 
order. In the campaign of 1864 he was 
elected vice-president on the ticket with 
President Lincoln, and upon the assassi- 
nation of the latter he succeeded to the 



146 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



presidency, April 15, 1865. He retained 
the cabinet of President Lincoln, and at 
first exhibited considerable severity towards 
the former Confederates, but he soon inau- 
gurated a policy of reconstruction, pro- 
claimed a general amnesty to the late Con- 
federates, and established provisional gov- 
ernments in the southern states. These 
states claimed representation in congress in 
the following December, and then arose the 
momentous question as to what should be 
the policy of the victorious Union against 
their late enemies. The Republican ma- 
jority in congress had an apprehension that 
the President would undo the results of the 
war, and consequently passed two bills over 
the executive veto, and the two highest 
branches of the government were in open 
antagonism. The cabinet was reconstructed 
in July, and Messrs. Randall, Stanbury and 
Browning superseded Messrs. Denison, 
Speed and Harlan. In August, 1867, Pres- 
ident Johnson removed the secretary of war 
and replaced him with General Grant, but 
when congress met in December it refused 
to ratify the removal of Stanton, who re- 
sumed the functions of his office. In 1868 
the president again attempted to remove 
Stanton, who refused to vacate his post 
and was sustained by the senate. Presi- 
dent Johnson was accused by congress of 
high crimes and misdemeanors, but the trial 
resulted in his acquittal. Later he was Uni- 
ted States senator from Tennessee, and 
died July 31, 1875. 



EDMUND RANDOLPH, first attorney- 
general of the United States, was born 
in Virginia, August 10, 1753 His father, 
John Randolph, was attorney-tjeneral of 
Virginia, and lived and died a royalist. Ed- 
mund was educated in the law, but joined 
the army as aide-de-camp to Washington 



in 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. He 
was elected to the Virginia convention in 
1776, and attorney-general of the state the 
same year. In 1779 he was elected to the 
Continental congress, and served four years 
in that body. He was a member of the con- 
vention in 17S7 that framed the constitu- 
tion. In that convention he proposed what 
was known as the " Virginia plan" of con- 
federation, but it was rejected. He advo- 
cated the ratification of the constitution in 
the Virginia convention, although he had re- 
fused to sign it. He became governor of 
Virginia in 1788, and the next year Wash- 
ington appointed him to the office of at- 
torney-general of the United States upon 
the organization of the government under 
the constitution. He was appointed secre- 
tary of state to succeed Jefferson during 
Washington's second term, but resigned a 
year later on account of differences in the 
cabinet concerning the policy pursued to- 
ward the new French republic. He died 
September 12, 1813. 



W INFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK was 
born in Montgomery county, Penn- 
sylvania, February 14, 1824. He received 
his early education at the Norristown 
Academy, in his native county, and, in 1840, 
was appointed a cadet in the United States 
Military Academy, at West Point. He was 
gr.iduated from the latter in 1844, and brev- 
etted as second lieutenant of infantry. In 
1853 he was made first lieutenant, and two 
years later transferred to the quartermaster's 
department, with the rank of captain, and 
in 1863 promoted to the rank of major. He 
served on the frontier, and in the war with 
Mexico, displaying conspicuous gallantry dur- 
ing the latter. He also took a part in the 
Seminole war, and in the troubles in Kan- 
sas, in 1857, and in California, at the out- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



14T 



break of the Civil war, as chief quarter- 
master of the Southern district, he exerted 
a powerful influence. In 1861 he applied 
for active duty in the field, and was assigned 
to the department of Kentucky as chief 
quartermaster, but before entering upon that 
duty, was appointed brigadier-general of 
volunteers. His subsequent history during 
the war was substantially that of the Army 
of the Potomac. He participated in the 
campaign, under McClellan, and led the 
gallant charge, which captured Fort Magru- 
der, won the day at the battle of Wil- 
liamsburg, and by services rendered at 
Savage's Station and other engagements, 
won several grades in the regular service, 
and was recommended by McClellan for 
major-general of volunteers. He was a con- 
spicuous figure at South Mountain and An- 
tietam. He was commissioned major-gen- 
eral of volunteers, November 29, 1862, and 
made commander of the First Division of 
the Second Corps, which he led at Fred- 
ricksburg and at Chancellorsville. He was 
appointed to the command of the Second 
Corps in June, 1863, and at the battle of 
Gettysburg, July i, 2 and 3, of that year, 
took an important part. On his arrival on 
the field he found part of the forces then 
in retreat, but stayed the retrograde 
movement, checked the enemy, and on the 
following day commanded the left center, 
repulsed, on the third, the grand assault of 
General Lee's army, and was severely 
wounded. For his services on that field 
General Hancock received the thanks of 
congress. On recovering from his wound, 
he was detailed to go north to stimulate re- 
cruiting and fill up the diminished corps, and 
was the recipient of many public receptions 
and ovations. In March, 1S64, he returned 
to his command, and in the Wilderness and 
at Spottsylvania led large bodies of men 



successfully and conspicuously. From that 
on to the close of the campaign he was a 
prominent figure. In November, 1864, he 
was detailed to organize the First Veteran 
Reserve Corps, and at the close of hostilities 
was appointed to the command of the Mid- 
dle Military Division. In July, 1866, he 
was made major-general of the regular 
service. He was at the head of various 
military departments until 1872, when he 
was assigned to the command of the Depart- 
ment of the Atlantic, which post he held 
until his death. In 1869 he declined the 
nomination for governor of Pennsylvania. 
He was the nominee of the Democratic 
party for president, in 1880, and was de- 
feated by General Garfield, who had a popu- 
lar majority of seven thousand and eighteen 
and an electoral majority.of fifty-nine. Gen- 
eral Hancock died February 9, 1886. 



THOMAS PAINE, the most noted polit- 
ical and deistical writer of the Revolu- 
tionary period, was born in England, Jan- 
uary 29, 1737, of Quaker parents. His edu- 
cation was. obtained in the grammar schools 
of Thetford, his native town, and supple- 
mented by hard private study while working 
at his trade of stay-maker at London and 
other cities of England. He was for a time 
a dissenting preacher, although he did not 
relinquish his employment. He married a 
revenue official's daughter, and was employed 
in the revenue service for some time. He 
then became a grocer and during all this time 
he was reading and cultivating his literary 
tastes, and had developed a clear and forci- 
ble style of composition. He was chosen to 
represent the interests of the excisemen, 
and published a pamphlet that brought 
him considerable notice. He was soon after- 
ward introduced to Benjamin Franklin, and 
having been dismissed from the service on a 



148 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



charge of smuggling, his resentment led him 
to accept the advice of that statesman to 
come to America, in 1774. He became 
editor of the " Penns\'lvania Magazine," and 
the next year published his "Serious 
Thoughts upon Slavery" in the "Penn- 
sylvania Journal." His greatest political 
work, however, was written at the sugges- 
tion of Dr. Rush, and entitled " Common 
Sense." It was the most popular pamphlet 
written during the period and he received 
two thousand five hundred dollars from the 
state of Pennsylvania in recognition of its 
value. His periodical, the "Crisis," began 
in 1776, and its distribution among the 
soldiers did a great deal to keep up the spirit 
of revolution. He was made secretary of 
the committee of foreign affairs, but was dis- 
missed for revealing diplomatic secrets in 
one of his controversies with Silas Deane. 
He was originator and promoter of a sub- 
scription to relieve the distress of the soldiers 
near the close of the war, and was sent to 
France with Henry Laurens to negotiate the 
treaty with France, and was granted three 
thousand dollars by congress for his services 
there, and an estate at New Rochelle, by the 
state of New York. 

In 1787, after the close of the Revolu- 
tionary war, he went to France, and a few 
years later published his " Rights of Man," 
defending the French revolution, which 
gave him great popularity in France. He 
was made a citizen and elected to the na- 
tional convention at Calais. He favored 
banishment of the king to America, and 
opposed his execution. He was imprisoned 
for about ten months during 1794 by the 
Robespierre party, during which time he 
wrote the " Age of Reason," his great deis- 
tical work. He was in danger of the guillo- 
tine for several months. He took up his 
residence with the family of James Monroe, 



then minister to France and was chosen 
again to the convention. He returned 
to the United States in 1802, and was 
cordially received throughout the coun- 
try except at Trenton, where he was insulted 
by Federalists. He retired to his estate at 
New Rochelle, and his death occurred June 
8, 1809. 

JOHN WILLIAM MACKAY was one of 
J America's noted men, both in the de- 
velopment of the western coast and the 
building of the Mackay and Bennett cable. 
He was born in 1831 at Dublin, Ireland; 
came to New York in 1840 and his boyhood 
days were spent in Park Row. He went 
to California some time after the argonauts 
of 1849 and took to the primitive methods 
of mining — lost and won and finally drifted 
into Nevada about i860. The bonanza dis- 
coveries which were to have such a potent 
influence on the finance and statesmanship 
of the day came in 1S72. Mr. Mackay 
founded the Nevada Bank in 1878. He is 
said to have taken one hundred and 
fifty million dollars in bullion out of 
the Big Bonanza mine. There were as- 
sociated with him in this enterprise James 
G. Fair, senator from Nevada; William 
O'Brien and James C. Flood. When 
vast wealth came to Mr. Mackay he be- 
lieved it his duty to do his country some 
service, and he agitated in his mind the 
building of an American steamship line, 
and while brooding over this his attention 
was called to the cable relations betsveen 
America and Europe. The financial man- 
agement of the cable was selfish and ex- 
travagant, and the capital was heavy with 
accretions of financial " water" and to pay 
even an apparent dividend upon the sums 
which represented the nominal value of the 
cables, it was necessary to hold the rates 



I 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



14» 



at an exorbitant figure. And, moreover, 
the cables were foreign; in one the influence 
of France being paramount and in the other 
that of England; and' in the matter of intel- 
ligence, so necessary in case of war, we 
would be at the mercy of our enemies. This 
train of thought brought Mr. Mackay into re- 
lation with James Gordon Bennett, the pro- 
prietor of the " New York Herald." The 
result of their intercourse was that Mr. Mac- 
kay so far entered into the enthusiasm of 
Mr. Bennett over an independent cable, 
that he offered to assist the enterprise with 
five hundred thousand dollars. This was the 
inception of the Commercial Cable Com- 
pany, or of what has been known for years 
as the Mackav-Bennett cable. 



ELISHA GRAY, the great inventor and 
electrician, was born August 2, 1835. 
at Barnesville, Belmont county, Ohio. He 
was, as a child, greatly interested in the 
phenomena of nature, and read with avidity 
all the books he could obtain, relating to 
this subject. He was apprenticed to various 
trades during his boyhood, but his insatiable 
thirst for knowledge dominated his life and 
he found time to study at odd intervals. 
Supporting himself by working at his trade, 
he found time to pursue a course at Oberlin 
College, where he particularly devoted him- 
self to the study of physicial science. Mr. 
Gray secured his first patent for electrical 
or telegraph apparatus on October i, 1867. 
His attention was first attracted to tele- 
phonic transmission during this year and he 
saw in it a way of transmitting signals for 
telegraph purposes, and conceived the idea 
of electro-tones, tuned to different tones in 
the scale. He did not then realize the im- 
portance of his invention, his thoughts being 
employed on the capacity of the apparatus 
for transmitting musical tones through an 



electric circuit, and it was not until 1874 
that he was again called to consider the re- 
production of electrically-transmitted vibra- 
tions through the medium of animal tissue. 
He continued experimenting with various 
results, which finally culminated in his 
taking out a patent for his speaking tele- 
phone on February 14, 1876. He took out 
fifty additional patents in the course of 
eleven years, among which were, telegraph 
switch, telegraph repeater, telegraph annun- 
ciator and typewriting telegraph. From 
1869 until 1873 he was employed in the 
manufacture of telegraph apparatus in Cleve- 
land and Chicago, and filled the office of 
electrician to the Western Electric Com- 
pany. He was awarded the degree of D. 
S. , and in 1874 he went abroad to perfect 
himself in acoustics. Mr. Gray's latest in- 
vention was known as the telautograph or 
long distance writing machine. Mr. Gray 
wrote and published several works on scien- 
tific subjects, among which were: "Tele- 
graphy and Telephony," and " Experi- 
mental Research in Electro-Harmonic Tele- 
graphy and Telephony." 



WHITELAW REID.— Among the many 
men who have adorned the field of 
journalism in the United States, few stand 
out with more prominence than the scholar, 
author and editor whose name heads this ar- 
ticle. Born at Xenia, Greene county, Ohio, 
October 27, 1837, he graduated at Miami 
University in 1856. For about a year he 
was superintendent of the graded schools of 
South Charleston, Ohio, after which he pur- 
chased the "Xenia News," which he edited 
for about two years. This paper was the 
first one outside of Illinois to advocate the 
nomination of Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Reid 
having been a Republican .«ince the birth of 
that party in 1856. After taking an active 



150 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



part in the campaign, in the winter of i860— 
61, he went to the state capital as corres- 
pondent of three daily papers. At the close 
of the session of the legislature he became 
city editor of the "Cincinnati Gazette," 
and at the breaking out of the war went to 
the front as a correspondent for that journal. 
For a time he served on the staff of General 
Morris in West Virginia, with the rank of 
captain. Shortly after he was on the staff 
of General Rosecrans, and, under the name 
of "Agate," wrote most graphic descrip- 
tions of the movements in the field, espe- 
cially that of the battle- ol Pittsburg Land- 
ing. In the spring of 1862 Mr. Reid went 
to Washington and was appointed librarian 
to the house of representatives, and acted as 
correspondent of the " Cincinnati Gazette." 
His description of the battle of Gettysburg, 
written on the field, gained him added 
reputation. In 1865 he accompanied Chief 
Justice Chase on a southern tour, and pub- 
lished "After the War; a Southern Tour." 
During the next two years he was engaged 
in cotton planting in Louisiana and Ala- 
bama, and published "Ohio in the War." 
In 1868 he returned to the " Cincinnati Ga- 
zette," becoming one of its leading editors. 
The same year he accepted the invitation of 
Horace Greeley and became one of the staff 
on the "New York Tribune." Upon the 
death of Mr. Greeley in 1872, Mr. Reid be- 
came editor and chief proprietor of that 
paper. In 1878 he was tendered the United 
States mission to Berlin, but declined. The 
offer was again made by the Garfield ad- 
ministration, but again he declined. In 
1878 he was elected by the New York legis- 
lature regent of the university, to succeed 
General John A. Dix. Under the Harrison 
administration he served as United States 
minister to France, and in 1892 was the 
Republican nominee for the vice-presidency 



of the United States. Among other works 
published by him were the " Schools of 
Journalism," "The Scholar in Politics," 
"Some Newspaper Tendencies," and 
' ' Town-Hall Suggestions. " 



GEORGE WHITEFIELD was one of 
the most powerful and effective preach- 
ers the world has ever produced, swaying 
his hearers and touching the hearts of im- 
mense audiences in a mannerthat has rarely 
been equalled and never surpassed. While 
not a native of America, yet much of his 
labor was spent in this country. He wielded 
a great influence in the United States in 
early days, and his death occurred here; so 
that he well deserves a place in this volume 
as one of the most celebrated men America 
has known. 

George Whitefield was born in the Bull 
Inn, at Gloucester, England, December 16, 
1 7 14. He acquired the rudiments of learn- 
ing in St. Mary's grammar school. Later 
he attended Oxford University for a time, 
where he became intimate with the Oxford 
Methodists, and resolved to devote himself 
to the ministry. He was ordained in the 
Gloucester Cathedral June 20, 1836, and 
the following day preached his first sermon 
in the same church. On that day there 
commenced a new era in Whitefield's life. 
He went to London and began to preach at 
Bishopsgate church, his fame soon spread- 
ing over the city, and shortly he was en- 
gaged four times on a single Sunday in ad- 
dressing audiences of enormous magnitude, 
and he preached in various parts of his native 
country, the people crowding in multitudes 
to hear him and hanging upon the rails and 
rafters of the churches and approaches there- 
to. He finally sailed for America, landing 
in Georgia, where he stirred the people to 
great enthusiasm. During the balance oi 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



158 



his life he divided his time between Great 
Britain and America, and it is recorded that 
he crossed the Atlantic thirteen times. He 
came to America for the seventh time in 
1770. He preached every day at Boston 
from the 17th to the 20th of September, 
1770, then traveled to Newbury port, preach- 
ing at Exeter, New Hampshire, September 
29, on the way. That evening he went to 
Newburyport, where he died the next day, 
Sunday, September 30, 1770. 

" W'hitefield's dramatic power was amaz- 
ing, " says an eminent writer in describing 
him. " His voice was marvelously varied, 
and he ever had it at command — an organ, 
a flute, a harp, all in one. His intellectual 
powers were not of a high order, but he had 
an abundance of that ready talent and that 
wonderful magnetism which makes the pop- 
ular preacher; and beyond all natural en- 
dowments, there was in his ministry the 
power of evangelical truth, and, as his con- 
verts believed, the presence of the spirit of 
God." 

CHARLES FRANCIS BRUSH, one of 
America's prominent men in the devel- 
opment of electrical science, was born March 
17, 1849, near Cleveland, Ohio, and spent 
his early life on his father's farm. From 
the district school at Wickliffe, Ohio, he 
passed to the Shaw Academy at Collamer, 
and then entered the high school at Cleve- 
land. His interest in chemistry, physics 
and engineering was already marked, and 
during his senior year he was placed in 
charge of the chemical and physical appar- 
atus. During these years he devised a plan 
for lighting street lamps, constructed tele- 
scopes, and his first electric arc lamp, also 
an electric motor. In September, 1867, he 
entered the engineering department of the 

University of Michigan and graduated in 




1869, which was a year in advance of his 
class, with the degree of M. E. He theri 
returned to Cleveland, and for three years 
was engaged as an analytical chemist and 
for four years in the iron business. In 
1875 Mr. Brush became interested in elec- 
tric lighting, and in 1876, after four months' 
e.xperimenting, he completed the dynamo- 
electric machine that has made his name 
famous, and in a shorter time produced the 
series arc lamps. These were both patent- 
ed in the United States in 1876, and he 
afterward obtained fifty patents on his later 
inventions, including the fundamental stor- 
age battery, the compound series, shunt- 
winding for dynamo-electric machines, and 
the automatic cut-out for arc lamps. His 
patents, two-thirds of which have already 
been profitable, are held by the Brush 
Electric Company, of Cleveland, while his 
foreign patents are controlled by the Anglo- 
American Brush Electric Light Company, 
of London. In 1880 the Western Reserve 
University conferred upon Mr. Brush the 
degree of Ph. D., and in 1881 the French 
government decorated him as a chevalier of 
the Legion of Honor. 



HENRY CLEWS, of Wall-street fame, 
was one of the noted old-time opera- 
tors on that famous street, and was also an 
author of some repute. Mr. Clews was 
born in Staffordshire, England, August 14, 
1840. His father had him educated with 
the intention of preparing him for the minis- 
try, but on a visit to the United States the 
young man became interested in a business 
life, and was allowed to engage as a clerk in 
the importing house of Wilson G. Hunt & 
Co., of New York. Here he learned the 
first principles of business, and when the war 
broke out in 1861 young Clews saw in the 
needs of the government an opportunity to 



154 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



reap a golden harvest. He identified him- 
self with the negotiating of loans for the 
government, and used his powers of pur- 
suasion upon the great money powers to 
convince them of the stability of the govern- 
ment and the value of its securities. By 
enthusiasm and patriotic arguments he in- 
duced capitalists to invest their money in 
government securities, often against their 
judgment, and his success was remarkable. 
His was one of the leading firms that aided 
the struggling treasury department in that 
critical hour, and his reward was great. In 
addition to the vast wealth it brought, 
President Lincoln and Secretary Chase 
both wrote important letters, acknowledging 
his valued service. In 1873, by the repu- 
diation of the bonded indebtedness of the 
state of Georgia, Mr. Clewf. lost six million 
dollars which he had invested in those se- 
curities. It is said that he is the only man, 
with one exception, in Wall street, who 
ever regained great wealth after utter dis- 
aster. His " Twenty-Eight Years in Wall 
Street " has been widely read. 



ALFRED VAIL was one of the men that 
gave to the world the electric telegraph 
and the names of Henry, Morse and Vail 
will forever remain linked as the prime fac- 
tors in that great achievement. Mr. Vail 
was born September 25, 1807, at Morris- 
town, New Jersey, and was a son of Stephen 
Vail, the proprietor of the Speedwell Iron 
Works, near Morristown. At the age of 
seventeen, after he had completed his stud- 
ies at the Morristown Academy, Alfred Vail 
went into the Speedwell Iron Works and 
contented himself with the duties of his 
position until he reached his majority. He 
then determined to prepare himself for the 
ministry, and at the age of twenty-five he 
entered the University of the City of New 



York, where he was graduated in 1836. His 
health becoming impaired he labored for a 
time under much uncertainty as to his future 
course. Professor S. F. B. Morse had come 
to the university in 1835 as professor of lit- 
erature and fine arts, and about this time, 

1837, Professor Gale, occupying the chair 
of chemistry, invited Morse to exhibit his 
apparatus for the benefit of the students. 
On Saturday, September 2, 1837, the exhi- 
bition took place and Vail was asked to at- 
tend, and with his inherited taste for me- 
chanics and knowledge of their construction, 
he saw a great future for the crude mechan- 
ism used by Morse in giving and recording 
signals. Mr. Vail interested his father in 
the invention, and Morse was invited to 
Speedwell and the elder Vail promised to 
help him. It was stipulated that Alfred 
Vail should construct the required apparatus 
and exhibit before a committee of congress 
the telegraph instrument, and was to receive 
a quarter interest in the invention. Morse 
had devised a series of ten numbered leaden 
types, which were to be operated in giving 
the signal. This was not satisfactory to 
Vail, so he devised an entirely new instru- 
ment, involving a lever, or "point," on a 
radically different principle, which, when 
tested, produced dots and dashes, and de- 
vised the famous dot-and-dash alphabet, 
misnamed the " Morse." At last the ma- 
chine was in working order, on January 6, 

1838. The machine was taken to Wash- 
ington, where it caused not only wonder, 
but excitement. Vail continued his experi- 
ments and devised the lever and roller. 
When the line between Baltimore and 
Washington was completed, Vail was sta- 
tioned at the Baltimore end and received 
the famous first message. It is a remarka- 
ble fact that not a single feature of the 
original invention of Morse, as formulated 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArirr. 



155. 



by his caveat and repeated in his original 
patent, is to be found in Vail's apparatus. 
From 1837 to 1844 it was a combination of 
tlie inventions of Morse, Henry and Vail, 
but the work of Morse fell gradually into 
desuetude, while \'airs conception of an 
alphabet has remained unchanged for half a 
century. Mr. Vail published but one work. 
"American Electro-Magnetic Telegraph," 
in 1845, ^n<i ^\q^ at Morristown at the com- 
paratively early age of fifty-one, on January 
19. 1859- 

ULYSSES S. GR.\NT, the eighteenth 
president of the United States, was 
born April 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Cler- 
mont county, Ohio. At the age of seven- 
teen he entered the United States Military 
Academy at West Point, from which he 
graduated in June, 1843, and was given his 
brevet as second lieutenant and assigned to 
the Fourth Infantry. He remained in the 
service eleven years, in which time he 
was engaged in the Mexican war with gal- 
lantry, and was thrice brevetted for conduct 
in the field. In 1848 he married Miss Julia 
Dent, and in 1854, having reached the 
grade of captain, he resigned and engaged 
in farming near St. Louis. In i860 he en- 
tered the leather business with his father at 
Galena, Illinois. 

On the breaking out of the war, in 1861, 
he commenced to drill a company at Ga- 
lena, and at the same time offered his serv- 
ices to the adjutant-general of the army, 
but he had few influential friends, so re- 
ceived no answer. He was employed by 
the governor of Illinois in the organization 
of the various volunteer regiments, and at 
the end of a few weeks was given the 
colonelcy of the Twenty-first Infantry, from 
that state. His military training and knowl- 
edge soon attracted the attention of his su- 



perior officers, and on reporting to Generai 
Pope in Missouri, the latter put him in 
the way of advancement. August 7, 1861, 
he was promoted to the rank of brigadier- 
general of volunteers, and for a few weeks 
was occupied in watching the movements of 
partisan forces in Missouri. September i, 
the same year, he was placed in command 
of the Department of Southeast Missouri, 
with headquarters at Cairo, and on the 6th 
of the month, without orders, seized Padu- 
cah, which commanded the channel of the 
Ohio and Tennessee rivers, by which he se- 
cured Kentucky for the Union. He now 
received orders to make a demonstration on 
Belmont, which he did, and with about three 
thousand raw recruits held his own against 
the Confederates some seven thousand 
strong, bringing back about two hundred 
prisoners and two guns. In February,] 1862, 
he moved up the Tennessee river with 
the naval fleet under Commodore Foote. 
The latter soon silenced Fort Henry, and 
Grant advanced against Fort Donelson and 
took their fortress and its garrison. His 
prize here consisted of sixty-five cannon, 
seventeen thousand six hundred stand of 
arms, and fourteen thousand six hundred 
and twenty-three prisoners. This was the 
first important success won by the Union 
forces. Grant was immediately made a 
major-general and placed in command of 
the district of West Tennessee. In April, 
1862, he fought the battle of Pittsburg Land- 
ing, and after the evacuation of Corinth by 
the enemy Grant became commander of the 
Department of the Tennessee. He now 
made his first demonstration toward Vicks- 
burg, but owing to the incapacity of subor- 
dinate officers, was unsuccessful. In Janu- 
ary, 1863, he took command of all the 
troops in the Mississippi Valley and devoted 
several months to the siege of Vicksburg,. 



156 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



which was finally taken possession of by him 
July 4, with thirty-one thousand six hundred 
prisoners and one hundred and seventy-two 
cannon, thus throwing the Mississippi river 
open to the Federals. He was now raised 
to the rank of major-general in the regular 
army. October following, at the head of 
the Department of the Mississippi, General 
Grant went to Chattanooga, where he over- 
threw the enemy, and united with the Army 
of the Cumberland. The remarkable suc- 
cesses achieved by him pointed Grant out 
for an appropriate commander of all na- 
tional troops, and in February, 1864, the 
rank of lieutenant-general was made for him 
by act of congress. Sending Sherman into 
Georgia, Sigel into the Valley of West Vir- 
ginia and Butler to attempt the capture of 
Richmond he fought his way through the 
Wilderness to the James and pressed the 
siege of the capital of the Confederacy. 
After the fall of the latter Grant pressed 
the Confederate army so hard that their 
commander surrendered at Appomattox 
Court House, April 9, 1865. This virtually 
ended the war. 

After the war the rank of general was 
conferred upon U. S. Grant, and in 1868 he 
was elected president of the United States, 
and re-elected his own successor in 1872. 
After the expiration of the latter term he 
made his famous tour of the world. He died 
at Mt. McGregor, near Saratoga, New York, 
July 23, 1885, and was buried at Riverside 
Park, New York, where a magnificent tomb 
has been erected to hold the ashes of the 
nation's hero. 



JOHN MARSHALL, the fourth chief jus- 
tice of the United States supreme court, 
was born in Germantown, Virginia, Septem- 
ber 24, 1755 His father. Colonel Thomas 
Marshall, served with distinction in the Rev- 



olutionary war, while he also served from 
the beginning of the war until 1779, where 
he became noted in the field and courts 
martial. While on detached service he at- 
tended a course of law lectures at William 
and Mary College, delivered by Mr. Wythe, 
and was admitted to the bar. The next year 
he resigned his commission and began his 
career as a lawyer. He was a distinguished 
member of the convention called in Virginia 
to ratify the Federal constitution. He was 
tendered the attorney-generalship of the 
United States, and also a place on the su- 
preme bench, besides other places of less 
honor, all of which he declined. He 
went to France as special envoy in 1798, 
and the next year was elected to congress. 
He served one year and was appointed, first, 
secretary of war, and then secretary of state, 
and in 1801 was made chief justice of the 
United States. He held this high office un- 
til his death, in 1835. 

Chief Justice Marshall's early education 
was neglected, and his opinions, the most 
valuable in existence, are noted for depth 
of wisdom, clear and comprehensive reason- 
ing, justice, and permanency, rather than for 
wide learning and scholarly construction. 
His decisions and rulings are resorted to 
constantly by our greatest lawyers, and his 
renown as a just judge and profound jurist 
was world wide. 



LAWRENCE BARRETT is perhaps 
known more widely as a producer of 
new plays than as a great actor. He was 
born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1838, and 
educated himself as best he could, and at 
the age of sixteen years became salesman 
for a Detroit dry goods house. He after- 
wards began to go upon the stage as a 
supernumerary, and his ambition was soon 
rewarded by the notice of the management. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



157 



During the war of the Rebellion he was a 
soldier, and after valiant service for his 
country he returned to the stage. He went 
to Europe and appeared in Liverpool, and 
returning in 1869, he began playing at 
Booth's theater, with Mr. Booth. He was 
afterward associated with John McCullough 
in the management of the California 
theater. Probably the most noted period 
of his work was during his connection with 
Edwin Booth as manager of that great 
actor, and supporting him upon the stage. 
Mr. Barrett was possessed of the crea- 
tive instinct, and, unlike Mr. Booth, he 
sought new fields for the display of his 
genius, and only resorted to traditional 
drama in response to popular demand. He 
preferred new plays, and believed in the 
encouragement of modern dramatic writers, 
and was the only actor of prominence in his 
time that ventured to put upon the stage 
new American plays, which he did at his 
own expense, and the success of his experi- 
ments proved the quality of his judgment. 
He died March 21, 1891. 



ARCHBISHOP JOHN HUGHES, a cel- 
ebrated Catholic clergyman, was born 
at Annaboghan, Tyrone county, Ireland, 
June 24, 1797, and emigrated to America 
when twenty years of age, engaging for 
some time as a gardener and nurseryman. 
In 1 8 19 he entered St. Mary's College, 
where he secured an education, paying his 
way by caring for the college garden. In 
1825 he was ordained a deacon of the Ro- 
man Catholic church, and in the same year, 
a priest. Until 1 838 he had pastoral charges 
in Philadelphia, where he founded St. John's 
Asylum in 1829, and a few years later es- 
tablished the "Catholic Herald." In 1838 
he was made bishop of Basileopolis in parti- 
bus and coadjutor to Bishop Dubois, of 



New York, and in 1842 became bishop of 
New York. In 1839 he founded St. John's 
College, at Fordham. In 1850 he was 
made archbishop of New York. In 1861-2 
he was a special agent of the United States 
in Europe, after which he returned to this 
country and remained until his death, Jan- 
uary 3, 1864. Archbishop Hughes early 
attracted much attention by his controver- 
sial correspondence with Rev. John Breck- 
inridge in 1833-35. He was a man of great 
ability, a fluent and forceful writer and an 
able preacher. 



RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES 
was the nineteenth president of the 
United States and served from 1877 to 1 88 1 . 
He was born October 4, 1822, at Delaware, 
Ohio, and his ancestry can be traced back 
as far as 1280, when Hayes and Rutherford 
were two Scottish chieftans fighting side by 
side with Baliol, William Wallace and 
Robert Bruce. The Hayes family had for 
a coat of arms, a shield, barred and sur- 
mounted by a flying eagle. There was a 
circle of stars about the eagle, while on a 
scroll underneath was their motto, "Recte." 
Misfortune overtook the family and in 1680 
George Hayes, the progenitor of the Ameri- 
can family, came to Connecticut and settled 
at Windsor. Rutherford V>. Hayes was 
a very delicate child at his birth and was 
not expected to live, but he lived in spite of 
all and remained at home until he was 
seven years old, when he was placed in 
school. He was a very tractablepupil, being 
always very studious, and in 1838 entered 
Kenyon College, graduating from the same 
in 1842. He then took up the study of law 
in the office of Thomas Sparrow at Colum- 
bus, but in a short time he decided to enter 
a law school at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
where for two years he was immersed in the 



158 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



study of law. Mr. Hayes was admitted to 
the bar in 1845 in Marietta, Ohio, and very 
soon entered upon the active practice of his 
profession with Ralph P. Buckland, of 
Fremont, Ohio. He remained there three 
years, and in 1849 removed to Cincinnati, 
Ohio, where his ambition found a new 
stimulus. Two events occurred at this 
period that had a powerful influence on his 
after life. One was his marriage to Miss 
Lucy Ware Webb, and the other was his 
introduction to a Cincinnati literary club, 
a body embracing such men as Salmon P. 
Chase, John Pope, and Edward F. Noyes. 
In 1856 he was nominated for "judge of the 
court of common pleas, but declined, and 
two years later he was appointed city 
solicitor. At the outbreak of the Rebellion 
Mr. Hayes was appointed major of the 
Twenty-third Ohio Infantry, June 7, 1861, 
and in July the regiment was ordered to 
Virginia, and October 15, 1861, saw him 
promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of his 
regiment. He was made colonel of the 
Seventy-ninth Ohio Infantry, but refused to 
leave his old comrades; and in the battle of 
South Mountain he was wounded very 
severely and was unable to rejoin his regi- 
ment until November 30, 1862. He had 
been promoted to the colonelcy of the 
regiment on October 15, 1862. In the 
following December he was appointed to 
command the Kanawa division and was 
given the rank of brigadier-general for 
meritorious services in several battles, and 
in 1864 he was brevetted major-general for 
distinguished services in 1864, during 
which campaign he was wounded several 
times and live horses had been shot under 
him. Mr. Hayes' first venture in politics 
was as a Whig, and later he was one of the 
first to unite with the Republican party. In 
1864 he was elected from the Second Ohio 



district to congress, re-elected in 1866, 
and in 1867 was elected governor of Ohio 
over Allen G. Thurman, and was re-elected 
in 1869. Mr. Hayes was elected to the 
presidency in 1876, for the term of four 
years, and at its close retired to private life, 
and went to his home in Fremont, Ohio, 
where he died on January 17, 1893. 



WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN became 
a celebrated character as the nominee 
of the Democratic and Populist parties for 
president of the United States in 1896. He 
was born March 19, i860, at Salem, Illi- 
nois. He received his early education in 
the public schools of his native county, and 
later on he attended the Whipple Academy 
at Jacksonville. He also took a course in 
Illinois College, and after his graduation 
from the same went to Chicago to study 
law, and entered the Union College of Law 
a*^ a student. He was associated with the 
late Lyman Trumbull, of Chicago, during 
his law studies, and devoted considerable 
time to the questions of government. He 
graduated from the college, was admitted to 
the bar, and went to Jacksonville, Illinois, 
where he was married to Miss Mary Eliza- 
beth Baird. In 1887 Mr. Bryan removed 
to Lincoln, Nebraska, and formed a law 
partnership with Adolphus R. Talbot. He 
entered the field of politics, and in 1888 
was sent as a delegate to the state con- 
vention, which was to choose delegates to 
the national convention, during which he 
made a speech which immediately won him 
a high rank in political affairs. He declined, 
in the ne.xt state convention, a nomination 
for lieutenant-governor, and in 1890 he was 
elected congressman from the First district 
of Nebraska, and was the youngest member 
of the fifty-second congress. He cham- 
pioned the Wilson tariff bill, and served 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



159 



three terms in the house of representatives. 
He next ran for senator, but was defeated 
by John M. Thurston, and in 1896 he was 
selected hy the Democratic and Populist 
parties as their nominee for the presidency, 
being defeated by William McKinley. 



MARVIN HUGHITT, one of America's 
famous railroad men, was born in 
Genoa, New York, and entered the railway 
service in 1856 as superintendent of tele- 
graph and trainmaster of the St. Louis, Al- 
ton & Chicago, now Chicago & Alton Rail- 
road. Mr. Hughitt was superintendent of 
the southern division of the Illinois Central 
Railroad from 1862 until 1864, and was, later 
on, the general superintendent of the road 
until 1870. He was then connected with 
the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- 
road as assistant general manager, and re- 
tained this position until 1871, when he be- 
came the general manager of Pullman's 
Palace Car Company. In 1872 he was made 
general superintendent of the Chicago & 
Northwestern Railroad. He served during 
1876 and up to 1880 as general manager, 
and from 1880 until 1887 as vice-presi- 
dent and general manager. He was elected 
president of the road in 1887, in recog- 
nition of his ability in conducting the 
affairs of the road. He was also chosen 
president of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minne- 
apolis & Omaha Railway; the Fremont, Elk- 
horn & Missouri Valley Railroad, and the 
Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad, 
and his services in these capacities stamped 
him as one of the most able railroad mana- 
gers of his day. 

JOSEPH MEDILL, one of the most 
eminent of American journalists, was 
born in New Brunswick, Canada, April 6, 
1823. In 1 83 1 his father moved to Stark 



county, Ohio, and until 1841 Joseph Medill 
worked on his father's farm. Later- he 
studied law, and began the practice of that 
profession in 1846 at New Philadelphia, 
Ohio. But the nesvspaperfield was more 
attractive to Mr. Medill, and three years 
later he founded a free-soil Whig paper at 
Coshocton, Ohio, and after that time jour- 
nalism received all his abilities. "The 
Leader," another free-soil Whig paper, was 
founded by Mr. Medill at Cleveland in 1852. 
In that city he also became one of the first 
organizers of the Republican party. Shortly 
after that event he removed to Chicago and 
in 1855, with two partners, he purchased 
the " Chicago Tribune." In the contest for 
the nomination for the presidency in i860, 
Mr. Medill worked with unflagging zeal for 
Mr. Lincoln, his warm personal friend, and 
was one of the president's stanchest sup- 
porters during the war. Mr. Medill was a 
member of the Illinois Constitutional con- 
vention in 1870. President Grant, in 1871, 
appointed the editor a member of the firsi^ 
United States civil service commission, and 
the following year, after the fire, he was 
elected mayor of Chicago by a great ma- 
jority. During 1873 and 1874 Mr. Medill 
spent a year in Europe. Upon his return 
he purchased a controlling interest in the 
" Chicago Tribune." 



CLAUSSPRECKELS, the great " sugar 
baron," and one of the most famous 
representatives of commercial life in Amer- 
ica, was born in Hanover, Germany, and 
emigrated to the United States in 1840, 
locating in New York. He very soon be- 
came the proprietor of a small retail gro- 
cery store on Church street, and embarked 
on a career that has since astonished the 
world. He sold out his ousmess and went 
to California with the argonauts of 1849, 



IGO 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



not as a prospector, but as a trader, and for 
years after his arrival on the coast he was 
still engaged as a grocer. At length, after a 
quarter of a century of fairly prosperous 
business life, he found himself in a position 
where an ordinary man would have retired, 
but Mr. Spreckles did not retire; he had 
merely been gathering capital for the real 
work of his life. His brothers had followed 
him to California, and in combination with 
them he purchased for forty thousand dollars 
an interest in the Albany Brewery in San 
Francisco. But the field was not extensive 
enough for the development of his business 
abilities, so Mr. Sprecklas branched out 
extensively in the sugar business. He suc- 
ceeded in securing the entire output of 
sugar that was produced on the Sand- 
wich Islands, and after 1885 was known as 
the "Sugar King of Sandwich Islands." 
He controlled absolutely the sugar trade of 
the Pacific coast which was known to be 
not less than ten million dollars a year. 



CHARLES HENRY PARKHURST, 
famous as a clergyman, and for many 
years president of the Society for the 
Prevention of Crime, was born April 17, 
1842, at Framingham, Massachusetts, of 
English descent. At the age of sixteen 
he was pupil in the grammar school at 
Clinton, Massachusetts, and for the ensu- 
ing two years was a clerk in a dry goods 
store, which position he gave up to prepare 
himself for college at Lancaster academy. 
Mr. Parkhurst went to Amherst in 1862, 
and after taking a thorough course he gradu- 
ated in 1866, and in 1867 became the prin- 
cipal of the Amherst High School. He re- 
tained this position until 1870, when he 
visited Germany with the intention of tak- 
ing a course in philosophy and theology, 
but was forced to abandon this intention on 



account of illness in the family causinsr his 
early return from Europe. He accepted the 
chair of Latin and Greek in Williston Semi- 
nary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, and re- 
mained there two years. He then accom- 
panied his wife to Europe, and devoted two 
years to study in Halle, Leipsic and Bonn. 
Upon his return home he spent considerable 
time in the study of Sanscrit, and in 1874 
he became the pastor of the First Congrega- 
tional church at Lenox, Massachusetts. He 
gained here his reputation as a pulpit ora- 
tor, and on March 9, 1880, he became the 
pastor of the Madison Square Presbyterian 
church of New York. He was, in 1890, 
made a member of the Society for the Pre- 
vention of Crime, and the same year be- 
came its president. He delivered a sermon 
in 1S92 on municipal corruption, for which 
he was brought before the grand jury, which 
body declared his charges to be without suffi- 
cient foundation. But the matter did not end 
here, for he immediately went to work on a 
second sermon in which he substantiated his 
former sermon and wound up by saying, 
"I know, for I have seen." He was again 
summoned before that august body, and as 
a result of his testimony and of the investi- 
gation of the jurors themselves, the police 
authorities were charged with incompetency 
and corruption. Dr. Parkhurst was the 
author of the following works: ' ' The Forms 
of the Latin Verb, Illustrated by Sanscrit," 
"The Blind Man's Creed and Other Ser- 
mons," "The Pattern on the Mount," and 
" Three Gates on a Side." 



HENRY BERGH, although a writer, 
diplomatist and government official, 
was noted as a philanthropist — the founder 
of the American Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Animals. On his labors for 
the dumb creation alone rests his fame. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



161 



Alone, in the face of indifference, opposition 
and ridicule, he began the reform which is 
now recognized as one of the beneficent 
movements of the age. Through his exer- 
tions as a speaker and lecturer, but above 
all as a bold worker, in the street, in the 
court room, before the legislature, the cause 
he adopted gained friends and rapidly in- 
creased in power until it has reached im- 
mense proportions and influence. The work 
of the society covers all cases of cruelty to 
all sorts of animals, employs every moral 
agency, social, legislative and personal, and 
touches points of vital concern to health as 
well as humanity. 

Henry Bergh was born in New York 
City in 1823, and was educated at Colum- 
bia College. In 1863 he was made secre- 
tary of the legation to Russia and also 
served as vice-consul there. He also de- 
voted some time to literary pursuits and was 
the author of "Love's Alternative," a 
drama; "Married Off," a poem; "'The 
Portentous Telegram, " "The Ocean Para- 
gon;" "The Streets of New York," tales 
and sketches. 



HENRY BENJAMIN WHIPPLE, one 
of the most eminent of American di- 
vines, was born in Adams, Jefferson county. 
New York, February 15, 1822. He was 
brought up in the mercantile business, and 
early in life took an active interest in polit- 
ical affairs. In 1847 he became a candidate 
for holy orders and pursued theological 
studies with Rev. W. D. Wilson, D. D., 
afterward professor in Cornell University. 
He was ordained deacon in 1849, in Trinity 
church, Geneva, New York, by Rt. Rev. 
W. H. De Lancey, D. D., and took charge 
of Zion church, Rome, New York, Decem- 
ber I, 1849. fn 1850, our subject was or- 
dained priest by Bishop De Lancey. In 



1857 he became rector of the Church of the 
Holy Communion, Chicago. On the 30th 
of June, 1859, he was chosen bishop of 
Minnesota, and took charge of the interests 
of the Episcopal church in that state, being 
located at Faribault. In i860 Bishop 
Whipple, with Revs. I. L. Breck, S. W. 
Mauncey and E. S. Peake, organized the 
Bishop Seabury ^Kssion, out of which has 
grown the Cathedral of Our Merciful Savior, 
the Seabury Divinity School, Shattuck 
School and St. Mary's Hall, which have 
made Faribault City one of the greatest 
educational centers of the northwest. Bishop 
\\'hipple also became noted as the friend 
and defender of the North American In- 
dians and planted a number of successful 
missions among them. 



EZRA CORNELL was oneof the greatest 
philanthropists and friends of education 
the country has known. He was born at 
Westchester Landing, New York, January 
II, 1807. He grew to manhood in his na- 
tive state and became a prominent figure in 
business circles as a successful and self-made 
man. Soon after the invention of the elec- 
tric telegraph, he devoted his attention to 
that enterprise, and accumulated an im- 
mense fortune. In 1865, by a gift of five 
hundred thousand dollars, he made possible 
the founding of Cornell University, which 
was named in his honor. He afterward 
made additional bequests amouiitingto many 
hundred thousand dollars. His death oc- 
curred at Ithaca, New York, December 9, 
1874- 

IGNATIUS DONNELLY, widely knowi, 
1 as an author and politician, was born in 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 3, 
183 1. He was educated at the public 
schools of that city, and graduated from the 



162 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Central High School in 1849. He studied 
law in the office of Judge B. H. Brewster, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1852. In 
the spring of 1856, Mr. Donnelly emigrated 
to Minnesota, then a new territory, and, at 
Hastings, resumed the practice of law in 
partnership with A. M. Hayes. In 1857, 
and again in 1858, he was defeated for state 
senator, but in 1859 he was elected by the 
Republicans as lieutenant-governor, and re- 
elected in 1 86 1. In 1862 he was elected to 
represent the Second district of Minnesota 
in congress. He was re-elected to the same 
office in 1S64 and in 1866. He was an 
abolitionist and warmly supported President 
Lincoln's administration, but was strongly 
in favor of leniency toward the people of 
the south, after the war. In many ways he 
was identified with some of the best meas- 
ures brought before the house during his 
presence there. In the spring of 1868, at 
the request of the Republican national com- 
mittee, he canvassed New Hampshire and 
Connecticut in the interests of that party. 
E. B. Washburne about this time made an 
attack on Donnelly in one of the papers of 
Minnesota, which was replied to on the floor 
of the house by a fierce phillipic that will 
long be remembered. Through the inter- 
vention of the Washburne interests Mr. Don- 
nelly failed of a re-election in 1870. In 
1 873 he was elected to the state senate from 
Dakota county, and continuously re-elected 
until 1878. In 1886 he was elected mem- 
ber of the house for two years. In later 
years he identified himself with the Popu- 
list party. 

In 1882, Mr. Donnelly became known as 
an author, publishing his first literary work, 
"Atlantis, the Antediluvian World," which 
passed through over twenty-tsvo editions in 
America, several in England, and was trans- 
lated into French. This was followed by 



" Ragnarok, the Age of Fire and Gravel," 
which attained nearly as much celebrity as 
the first, and these two, in the opinion of 
scientific critics, are sufficient to stamp the 
author as a most capable and painstaking 
student of the facts he has collated in them. 
The work by which he gained the greatest 
notoriet}', however, was ' ' The Great Cryp- 
togram, or Francis Bacon's Cipher in the 
Shakespeare Plays." "Caesar's Column," 
" Dr. Huguet," and other works were pub- 
lished subsequently. 



STEVEN V. WHITE, a speculator of 
Wall Street of national reputation, was 
born in Chatham county. North Carolina, 
August 1, 1 83 1, and soon afterward re- 
moved to Illinois. His home was a log 
cabin, and until his eighteenth year he 
worked on the farm. Then after several 
years of struggle with poverty he graduated 
from Knox College, and went to St. Louis, 
where he entered a wholesale boot and shoe 
house as bookkeeper. He then studied law 
and worked as a reporter for the "Missouri 
Democrat." After his admission to the bar 
he went to New York, in 1865, and became 
a member of the banking house of Marvin 
& White. Mr. White enjoyed the reputa- 
tion of having engineered the only corner 
in Wall Street since Commodore Vander- 
bilt's time. This was the famous Lacka- 
wanna deal in 1883, in which he made a 
profit of two million dollars. He was some- 
times called " Deacon" White, and, though 
a member for many years of the Plymouth 
church, he never held that office. Mr. 
White was one of the most noted characters 
of the street, and has been called an orator, 
poet, philanthropist, linguist, abolitionist, 
astronomer, schoolmaster, plowboy, and 
trapper. He was a lawyer, e.x-congress- 
man, expert accountant, art critic andtheo- 



COMPEXniLM OF BIOGRArilT 



i63 



logian. He laid the foundation for a 
"Home for Colored People," in Chatham 
county, North Carolina, where the greater 
part of his father's life was spent, and in 
whose memory the work was undertaken. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, the twentieth 
president of the United States, was born 
November 19, 1831, in Cuyahoga county, 
Ohio, and was the son of Abram and Eliza 
(Baliou) Garfield. In 1833 the father, an 
industrious pioneer fanner, died, and the 
care of the family devolved upon Thomas, 
to whom James became deeply indebted for 
educational and other advantages. As James 
grew up he was industrious and worked on 
the farm, at carpentering, at chopping wood, 
or anything else he found to do, and in the 
meantime made the most of his books. 

Until he was about si.xteen, James' high- 
est ambition was to become a sea captain. 
On attaining that age he walked to 
Cleveland, and, not being able to find work, 
he engaged as a driver on the Ohio & Penn- 
sylvania canal, but quit this after a short 
time. He attended the seminary at Ches- 
ter for about three years, after which he 
entered Hiram Institute, a school started by 
the Discip)les of Christ in 1850. In order 
to pay his way he assumed the duties of 
janitor and at times taught school. After 
completing his course at the last named edu- 
cational institution he entered Williams Col- 
lege, from which he graduated in 1856. He 
afterward returned to Hiram College as its 
president. He studied law and was admitted 
to the bar in 1859. November 11, 1858, 
Mr. Garfield and Lucretia Rudolph were 
married. 

In 1859 Mr. Garfield made his first polit- 
ical speeches, at Hiram and in the neighbor- 
hood. The same year he was elected to the 
state senate. 



On the breaking out of the war, in 1861, 
he became lieutenant-colonel of the Forty- 
second Ohio Infantry, and, while but a ne^ 
soldier, was given command of four regi- 
ments of infantry and eight companies of 
cavalry, with which he drove the Confeder- 
ates under Humphrey Marshall out of Ken 
tucky. January II, 1862, he was commis- 
sioned brigadier-general. He participated 
with General Buell in the battle of Shiloh 
and the operations around Corinth, and was 
then detailed as a member of the Fitz John 
Porter court-martial. Reporting to General 
Rosecrans, he was assigned to the position 
of chief of staff, and resigned his position, 
with the rank of major-general, when his 
immediate superior was superseded. In 
the fall of 1862 Mr. Garfield was elected to 
congress and remained in that body, either 
in the house or senate, until 1880. 

June 8, 1880, at the national Republican 
convention, held in Chicago, General Gar- 
field was nominated for the presidency, and 
was elected. He was inaugurated March 
4, 1881, but, July 2, following, he was shot 
and fatally wounded by Charles Guiteau for 
some fancied political slight, and died Sep- 
tember 19, 1881. 



INCREASE MATHER was one of the 
1 most prominent preachers, ediicators and 
authors of early times in the New England 
states. He was born at Dorchester, Massa- 
chusetts, June 21, 1639, and was given an 
excellent education, graduating at Harvard 
in 1656, and at Trinity College, Dublin, 
two years later. He was ordained a min- 
ister, and preached in England and America, 
and in 1664 became pastor of the North 
church, in Boston. In 1685 he became 
president of Harvard University, serving 
until 1701. In 1692 he received the first 
doctorate in divinity conferred in English 



164 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



speaking America. The same year he pro- 
cured in England a new charter for Massa- 
chusetts, which conferred upon himself the 
power of naming the governor, Heutenant- 
governor and council. He opposed the 
severe punishment of witchcraft, and took 
a prominent part in all public affairs of his 
day. He was a prolific writer, and became 
the author of nearly one hundred publica- 
tions, large and small. His death occurred 
August 23, 1723, at Boston. 



COTTON MATHER, a celebrated minis- 
ter in the "Puritan times" of New 
England, was born at Boston, Massachu- 
setts, February 12, 1663, being a son of 
Rev. Increase Mather, and a grandson of 
John Cotton. A biography of his father 
will be found elsewhere in this volume. 
Cotton Mather received his early education 
in his native city, was trained by Ezekiel 
Cheever, and graduated at Harvard College 
in 1678; became a teacher, and in 1684 
was ordained as associate pastor of North 
church, Boston, with his father, having by 
persistent effort overcome an impediment in 
his speech. He labored with great zeal as 
a pastor, endeavoring also, to establish the 
ascendancy of the church and ministry in 
civil affairs, and in the putting down of 
witchcraft by legal sentences, a wo/k in 
which he took an active part and through 
which he is best known in history. He re- 
ceived the degree of D. D. in 17 10, con- 
ferred by the University of Glasgow, and 
F. R. S. in 17 1 3. His death occurred at 
Bosion, February 13, 1728. He was the 
author of many publications, among which 
were " Memorable Providences Relating to 
Witchcraft," "Wonders of the Invisible 
World," "Essays to Do Good," " Mag- 
nalia Christi Americana," and " Illustra- 
tions of the Sacred Scriptures." Some of 



these works are quaint and curious, full of 
learning, piety and prejudice. A well- 
known writer, in summing up the life and 
character of Cotton Mather, says: " Mather, 
with all the faults of his early years, was e 
man of great e.xcellence of character. He 
labored zealously for the benefit of the 
poor, for mariners, slaves, criminals and 
Indians. His cruelty and credulity were 
the faults of his age, while his philanthro- 
phy was far more rare in that age than in 
the present." 

WILLIAM A. PEFFER, who won a 
national reputation during the time 
he was in the United States senate, was 
born on a farm in Cumberland county, 
Pennsylvania, September 10, 1831. He 
drew his education from the public schools 
of his native state and at the age of f.fteen 
taught school in winter, working on a farm 
in the summer. In June, 1853, while yet a 
young man, he removed to Indiana, and 
opened up a farm in St. Joseph county. 
In 1859 he made his way to Missouri and 
settled on a farm in Morgan county, but on 
account of the war and the unsettled state 
of the country, he moved to Illinois in Feb- 
ruary, 1862, and enlisted as a private in 
Company F, Eighty-third Illinois Infantry, 
the following August. He was promoted 
to the rank of second lieutenant in 
March, 1863, and served successively as 
quartermaster, adjutant, post 'Adjutant, 
judge advocate of a military commission, 
and depot quartermaster in the engineer 
department at Nashville. He was mustered 
out of the service June 26, 1865. He had, 
during his leisure hours while in the army, 
studied law, and in August, 1865, he com- 
menced the practice of that profession at 
Clarksville, Tennessee. He removed to 
Kansas in 1870 and practiced there until 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



165 



1878, in the meantime establishing and 
conducting two newspapers, the " Fredonia 
Journal " and " Coffey ville Journal." 

Mr. Peffer was elected to the state senate 
in 1874 and was a prominent and influential 
member of several important committees. 
He served as a presidential elector in 1S80. 
The year following he became editor of the 
" Kansas Farmer," which he made a promi- 
nent and useful paper. In 1890 Mr. Peffer 
was elected to the United States senate as 
a member of the People's party and took 
his seat March 4, 1891. After six years of 
service Senator Peffer was succeeded in 
March, 1897, by William A. Harris. 



ROBERT MORRIS.— The name of this 
financier, statesman and patriot is 
closely connected with the early history of 
the United States. He was a native of 
England, born J[anuary 20, 1734, and came 
to America with his father when thirteen 
years old. Until 1754 he served in the 
counting house of Charles Willing, then 
formed a partnership with that gentleman's 
son, which continued with great success until 
1793. In 1776 Mr. Morris was a delegate 
to the Continental congress, and, although 
once voting against the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, signed that paper on its adop- 
tion, and was several times thereafter re- 
elected to congress. During the Revolu- 
tionary war the services of Robert Morris 
in aiding the government during its finan- 
cial difficulties were of incalculable value; he 
freely pledged his personal credit for sup- 
plies for the army, atone time to the amount 
of about one and a half million dollars, with- 
out which the campaign of 1781 would have 
been almost impossible. Mr. Morris was 
appointed superintendent of finance in 1781 
and served until 1784, continuing to employ 
his personal credit to facilitate the needs of 



his department. He also served as mem- 
ber of the Pennsylvania legislature, and 
from 1786 to 1795 was United States sena- 
tor, declining meanwhile the position of sec- 
retary of the treasury, and suggesting the 
name of Alexander Hamilton, who was ap- 
pointed to that post. During the latter 
part of his life Mr. Morris was engaged ex- 
tensively in the China trade, and later be- 
came involved in land speculations, which 
ruined him, so that the remaining days of 
this noble man and patriot were passed 
in confinement for debt. His death occurred 
at Philadelphia, May 8, 1806. 



WILLIAM SHARON, a senator anr* 
capitalist, and mine owner of na 
tional reputation, was born at Smithfield, 
Ohio, January 9, 1821. He was reared 
upon a farm and in his boyhood given excel- 
lent educational advantages and in 1842 
entered Athens College. He remained in 
that institution about two years, after which 
he studied law with Edwin M. Stanton, and 
was admitted to the bar at St. Louis and 
commenced practice. His health failing, 
however, he abandoned his profession and 
engaged in mercantile pursuits at Carrollton, 
Greene county, Illinois. During the time 
of the gold excitement of 1849, Mr. Sharon 
went to California, whither so many went, 
and engaged in business at Sacramento. 
The next year he removed to San Francisco, 
where he operated in real estate. Being 
largely interested in its silver mines, he re- 
moved to Nevada, locating at Virginia City, 
and acquired an immense fortune. He be- 
came one of the trustees of the Bank of 
California, and during the troubles that 
arose on the death of William Ralston, the 
president of that institution, was largely in- 
strumental in bringing its affairs into a satis- 
factory shape. 



166 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Mr. Sharon was elected to represent the 
state of Nevada in the United States senate 
in 1S75, and remained a member of that 
body until 1881. He was always distin- 
guished for close application to business. 
Senator Sharon died November 13, 1885. 



HENRY W. SHAW, an American hu- 
morist who became celebrated under 
the non-de-pliaiw of " Josh Billings," gained 
his fame from the witticism of his writing, 
and peculiar eccentricity of style and spell- 
ing. He was born at Lanesborough, Mas- 
sachusetts, in 18 1 8. For twenty-five years 
he lived in different parts of the western 
states, following various lines of business, 
including farming and auctioneering, and in 
the latter capacity settled at Poughkeepsie, 
New York, in 1858. In 1863 he began 
writing humorous sketches for the news- 
papers over the signature of "Josh Bill- 
ings," and became immediately popular 
both as a writer and lecturer. He pub- 
lished a number of volumes of comic 
sketches and edited an " Annual Allminax " 
for a number of years, which had a wide cir- 
culation. His death occurred October 14, 
1885, at Monterey, California. 



JOHN M. THURSTON, well known 
throughout this country as a senator 
and political leader, was born at Mont- 
pelier, Vermont, August 21, 1847, of ^n 
old Puritan family which dated back their 
ancestry in this country to 1636, and among 
whom were soldiers of the Revolution and 
of the war of 18 12-15. 

Young Thurston was brought west by 
the family in 1854, they settling at Madison, 
Wisconsin, and two years later at Beaver 
Dam, where John M. received his schooling 
in the public schools and at Wayland Uni- 
versity. His father enlisted as a private in 



the First Wisconsin Cavalry and died while 
in the service, in the spring of 1863. 

Young Thurston, thrown on his own 
resources while attaining an education, sup- 
ported himself by farm work, driving team 
and at other manual labor. He studied law 
and was admitted to the bar May 21, 1869, 
and in October of the same year located in 
Omaha, Nebraska. He was elected a 
member of the city council in 1872, city 
attorney in 1874 and a member of the Ne- 
braska legislature in 1874. He was a mem- 
ber of the Republican national convention 
of 1884 and temporary chairman of that of 
1888. Taking quite an interest in the 
younger members of his party he was instru- 
mental in forming the Republican League 
of the United States, of which he was presi- 
dent for two years. He was then elected a 
member of the United States senate, in 
1895, to represent the state of Nebraska. 

As an attorney John M. Thurston occu- 
pied a very prominent place, and for a num- 
ber of years held the position of general 
solicitor of the Union Pacific railroad sys- 
tem. 

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON, a celebrated 
American naturalist, was born in Louis- 
iana, May 4, 1780, and was the son of an 
opulent French naval officer who owned a 
plantation in the then French colony. In 
his childhood he became deeply interested 
in the study of birds ami their habits. About 
1794 he was sent to Paris, France, where 
he was partially educated, and studied de- 
signing under the famous painter, Jacques 
Louis David. He returned to the Unit- 
ed States about 1798, and settled on a 
farm his father gave him, on the Perkioinen 
creek in eastern Pennsylvania. He mar- 
ried Lucy Bakewell in 1808, and, disposing 
of his property, removed to Louisville, Ken- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAnir. 



lt')7 



tucky, where he engaged in mercantile pur- 
suits. About two years later he began to 
make extensive excursions through the pri- 
meval forests of the southern and south- 
western states, in the exploration of which 
he passed many years. He made colored 
drawings of all the species of birds that he 
found. For several years he made his home 
with his wife and children at Henderson, on 
the Ohio river. It is said that about this 
time he had failed in business and was re- 
duced to poverty, but kept the wolf from the 
door by giving dancing lessons and in portrait 
painting. In 1824, at Philadelphia, he met 
Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who encouraged 
him to publish a work on ornithology. Two 
years later he went to England and com- 
menced the publication of his great work, 
"The Birds of America." He obtained a 
large number of subscribers at one thousand 
dollars a copy. This work, embracing five 
volumes of letterpress and five volumes of 
beautifully colored plates, was pronounced 
by Cuvier " the most magnificent monument 
that art ever raised to ornithology." 

Audubon returned to America in 1829, 
and explored the forests, lakes and coast 
from Canada to Florida, collecting material 
for another work. This was his " Ornitho- 
logical Biography; or. An Account of the 
Habits of the Birds of the United States, 
Etc." He revisited England in 1831, and 
returned in 1839, after which he resiaed on 
the Hudson, near New York City, in which 
place he died January 27, 1851. During 
his life he issued a cheaper edition of his 
great work, and was, in association with 
Dr. Bachman, preparing a work on the 
quadrupeds of North America. 



the superior British squadron, under Com- 
modore Downie, September II, 18 14. Com- 
modore McDonough was born in Newcastle 
county, Delaware, December 23, 1783, and 
when seventeen years old entered the 
United States navy as midshipman, serving 
in the expedition to Tripoli, under Decatur, 
in 1803-4. In 1807 he was promoted to 
lieutenant, and in July, 181 3, was made a 
commander. The following year, on Lake 
Champlain, he gained the celebrated victory 
above referred to, for which he was again 
promoted; also received a gold medal from 
congress, and from the state of Vermont an 
estate on Cumberl-and Head, in view of the 
scene of the engagement. His death oc- 
curred at sea, November 16, 1825, while he 
was returning from the command of the 
Mediterranean squadron. 



COMMODORE THOMAS McDON- 
OUGH gained his principal fame from 
he celebrated victory which he gained over 



CHARLES FRANCIS HALL, one of 
America's most celebrated arctic ex- 
plorers, was born in Rochester, New Hamp- 
shire, in 1 82 1. He was a blacksmith by 
trade, and located in Cincinnati, where later 
he became a journalist. For several years 
he devoted a great deal of attention to cal- 
orics. Becoming interested in the fate of the 
explorer. Sir John Franklin, he joined the 
expedition fitted out by Henry Griiinell and 
sailed in the ship "George Henry," under 
Captain Buddington, which left New Lon- 
don, Connecticut, in 18C0. He returned in 
1862, and two years later published his 
" Arctic Researches." He again joined the 
expedition fitted out by Mr. Grinnell, and 
sailed in the ship, " Monticello," under 
Captain Buddington, this time remaining in 
the arctic region over four years. On his 
return he brought back many evidences of 
having found trace of Franklin. 

In 1 87 1 the " Polaris " was fitted out by 
the United States government, and Captain 



168 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Hall again sailed for the polar regions. He 
died in Greenland in October, 1871, and the 
"Polaris" was finally abandoned by the 
crew, a portion of which, under Captain 
Tyson, drifted with the icebergs for one 
hundred and ninety-five days, until picked 
up by the " Tigress," on the 30th of April, 
1873. The other portion of the crew built 
boats, and, after a perilous voyage, were 
picked up in June, 1873, by a whaling vessel. 



OLIVER ELLSWORTH, the third chief 
justice of the United States, was born 
at Windsor, Connecticut, April 29, 1745. 
After graduating from Princeton, he took 
up the study of law, and was licensed 
to practice in 177 1. In 1777 he was elected 
as a delegate to the Continental congress. 
He was judge of the superior court of his 
state in 1784, and was chosen as a delegate 
to the constitutional convention in 1787. 
He sided with the Federalists, was elected 
to the United States senate in 1789, and 
was a firm supporter of Washington's policy. 
He won great distinction in that body, and 
was appointed chief justice of the supreme 
court of the United States by Washington 
in 1796. The relations between this coun- 
try and France having become violently 
strained, he was sent to Paris as envoy ex- 
traordinary in 1799, and was instrumental 
in negotiating the treaty that averted war. 
He resigned the following year, and was suc- 
ceeded by Chief Justice Marshall. His 
death occurred November 26, 1807. 



MELLVILLE WESTON FULLER, an 
eminent American jurist and chief 
justice of the United States supreme court, 
was born in Augusta, Maine, in 1833. His 
education was looked after in boyhood, and 
at the age of sixteen he entered Bowdoin 
College, and on graduation entered the law 



department of Harvard University. He then 
entered the law office of his uncle at Ban- 
gor, Maine, and soon after opened an office 
for the practice of law at Augusta. He was 
an alderman from his ward, city attorney, 
and editor of the " Age," a rival newspaper 
of the "Journal," which was conducted by 
James G. Blaine. He soon decided to re- 
move to Chicago, then springing into notice 
as a western metropolis. He at once iden- 
tified himself with the interests of the 
new city, and by this means acquired an 
experience that fitted him for his future 
work. He devoted himself assiduously to 
his profession, and had the good fortune to 
connect himself with the many suits grow- 
ing out of the prorogation of the Illinois 
legislature in 1S63. It was not long before 
he became one of the foremost lawyers in 
Chicago. He made a three days' speech in 
the heresy trial of Dr. Cheney, which added 
to his fame. He was appointed chief jus- 
tice of the United States by President Cleve- 
land in 1888, the youngest man who ever 
held that exalted position. His income from 
his practice had for many years reached 
thirty thousand dollars annually. 



CHESTER ALLEN ARTHUR, twenty- 
first president of the United States, was 
born in Franklin county, Vermont, Octo- 
ber 5, 1830. He was educated at Union 
College, Schenectady, New York, from 
which he graduated with honor, and en- 
gaged in teaching school. After two years 
he entered the law office of Judge E. D. 
Culver, of New York, as a student. He was 
admitted to the bar, and formed a partner- 
ship with an old room-mate, Henry D. Gar- 
diner, with the intention of practicing law 
in the west, but after a few months' search 
for a location, they returned to New York 
and opened an office, and at once entered 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



169 



upon a profitable practice. He was shortly 
afterwards married to a daughter of Lieu- 
tenant Herndon, of the United States navy. 
Mrs. Arthur died shortly before his nomina- 
tion for the vice-presidency. In 1856 a 
colored woman in New York was ejected 
from a street car and retained Mr. Arthur 
in a suit against the company, and obtained 
a verdict of five hundred dollars. It result- 
ed in a general order by all superintendents 
of street railways in the city to admit col- 
ored people to the cars. 

Mr. Arthur was a delegate to the first 
Republican national convention, and was 
appointed judge-advocate for the Second 
Brigade of New York, and then chief engi- 
neer of Governor Morgan's staff. At the 
close of his term he resumed the practice of 
iaw in New York. In 1872 he was made 
collector of the port of New York, which 
position he held four years. At the Chi- 
cago convention in 1880 Mr. Arthur was 
nominated for the vice-presidency with 
Garfield, and after an exciting campaign 
was elected. Four months. after the inau- 
guration President Garfield was assassinated, 
and Mr. Arthur was called to take the reins 
of government. His administration of 
affairs was generally satisfactory. At its 
close he resumed the practice of law in New 
York. His death occurred November 18, 
1886. 

ISAAC HULL was one of the most con- 
spicuous and prominent naval officers in 
the early history of America. He was born 
at Derby, Connecticut, March 9, 1775, be- 
ing the son of a Revolutionary officer. Isaac 
Hull early in life became a mariner, and 
when nineteen years of age became master 
of a merchant ship in the London trade. 
In 1798 he became a lieutenant in the United 

States navy, and three years later was made 
10 



first lieutenant of the frigate "Constitution." 
He distinguished himself by skill and valor 
against the French on the coast of Hayti, and 
served with distinction in the Barbary expe- 
ditions. July 12, 1 812, he sailed from 
Annapolis, in command of the "Constitu- 
tion," and for three days was pursued by a 
British squadron of five ships, from which 
he escaped by bold and ingenious seaman- 
ship. In August of the same year he cap- 
tured the frigate " Guerriere," one of his 
late pursuers and for this, the first naval 
advantage of that war, he received a gold 
medal from congress. Isaac Hull was later 
made naval commissioner and had command 
of various navy yards. His death occurred 
February 13, 1843, ^^ Philadelphia. 



MARCUS ALONZO HANNA. famous 
as a prominent business man, political 
manager and senator, was born in New Lis- 
bon, Columbiana county, Ohio, September 
24, 1837. He removed with his father's 
family to Cleveland, in the same state, in 
1852, and in the latter city, and in the 
Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio, 
received his education. He became an em- 
ploye of the wholesale grocery house of 
Hanna, Garrettson & Co., his father being 
the senior member of the firm. The latter 
died in 1862, and Marcus represented his 
interest until 1867, when the business was 
closed up. 

Our subject then became a member of 
the firm of Rhodes & Co., engaged in the 
iron and coal business, but at the e.xpira- 
tion of ten years this firm was changed to 
that of M. A. Hanna & Co. Mr. Hanna 
was long identified with the lake carrying 
business, being interested in vessels on the 
lakes and in the construction of them. As 
a director of the Globe Ship Manufacturing 
Company, of Cleveland, president of the 



170 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Union National Bank, of Cleveland, president 
of the Cleveland City Railway Company, 
and president of the Chapin Mining Com- 
pany, of Lake Superior, he became promi- 
nently identified with the business world. 
He was one of the government directors of 
the Union Pacific Railroad, being appointed 
to that position in 1885 by President Cleve- 
land. 

Mr. Hanna was a delegate to the na- 
tional Republican convention of 1884, which 
was his first appearance in the political 
world. He was a delegate to the con- 
ventions of 1888 and 1896, and was elect- 
ed chairman of the Republican national 
committee the latter year, and practically 
managed the campaign of William McKin- 
ley for the presidency. In 1897 Mr. Hanna 
was appointed senator by Governor Bush- 
nell, of Ohio, to fill the vacancy caused by 
the resignation of John Sherman. 



GEORGE PEABODY was one of the 
best known and esteemed of ail philan- 
thropists, whose munificent gifts to Ameri- 
can institutions have proven of so much 
benefit to the cause of humanity. He was 
born February 18, 1795, at South Danvers, 
Massachusetts, which is now called Pea- 
body in honor of him. He received but a 
meager education, and during his early life 
he was a mercantile clerk at Thetford, Ver- 
mont, and Newburyport, Massachusetts. In 
1 8 14 he became a partner with Elisha 
Riggs, at Georgetown, District of Columbia, 
and in 1 8 1 5 they moved to Baltimore, Mary- 
land. The business grew to great propor- 
tions, and they opened branch houses at 
New York and Philadelphia. JNir. Peabody 
made several voyages to Europe of com- 
mercial importance, and in 1829 became the 
head of the firm, which was then called 
Peabody, Riggs & Co., and in 1838 he re- 



moved to London, England. He retired 
from the firm, and established the cele- 
brated banking house, in which he accumu- 
lated a large fortune. He aided Mr. Grin- 
nell in fitting out Dr. Kane's Arctic expedi- 
tion, in 1852, and founded in the same year 
the Peabody Institute, in his native town, 
which he afterwards endowed w-ith two hun- 
dred thousand dollars. Mr. Peabody visited 
the United States in 1857, and gave three 
hundred thousand dollars for the establish- 
ment at Baltimore of an institute of science, 
literature and fine arts. In 1862 he gave 
two million five hundred thousand dollars 
for the erecting of lodging houses for the 
poor in London, and on another visit to the 
United States he gave one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars to establish at Harvard a 
museum and professorship of American 
archaeology and ethnology, an equal sum for 
the endowment of a department of physical 
science at Yale, and gave the "Southern 
Educational Fund " two million one hundred 
thousand dollars, besides devoting two hun- 
dred thousand dollars to various objects of 
public utility. Mr. Peabody made a final 
visit to the United States in 1869, and on 
this occasion he raised the endowment of 
the Baltimore Institute one million dollars, 
created the P.eabody Museum, at Salem, 
Massachusetts, with a fund of one hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars, gave sixty thou- 
sand dollars to Washington College, Vir- 
ginia; fifty thousand dollars for a "Peabody 
Museum, " at North Danvers, thirty thousand 
dollars to Phillips Academy, Andover; twen- 
ty-five thousand dollars to Kenyon College, 
Ohio, and twenty thousand dollars to the 
Maryland Historical Society. Mr. Peabody 
also endowed an art school at Rome, in 

1868. He died in London, November 4, 

1869, less then a month after he had re- 
turned from the United States, and his 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPJ/r 



171 



remains were brought to the United States 
and interred in his native town. He made 
several other bequests in his will, and left 
his family about five million dollars. 



MATTHEW S. QUAY, a celebrated 
public man and senator, was born at 
Diilsburgh, York county, Pennsylvania, 
September 30, 1833, of an old Scotch-Irish 
family, some of whom had settled in the 
Keystone state in 1715. Matthew received 
a good education, graduating from the Jef- 
ferson College at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, 
at the age of seventeen. He then traveled, 
taught school, lectured, and studied law 
under Judge Stcrrett. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1854, was appointed a prothon- 
otaiy in 1855 and elected to the same 
office in 1856 and 1859. Later he was 
made lieutenant of the Pennsylvania Ke 
serve-, lieutenant-colonel and assistant com- 
missary-general of the state, private secre- 
tary of the famous war governor of Pennsyl- 
vania, Andrew G. Curtin, colonel of the 
One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Pennsylva- 
nia Infantry (nine months men), military 
state agent and held other offices at different 
times. 

Mr. Quay was a member of the house of 
representatives of the state of Pennsylvania 
from 1865 to 1868. He filled the office of 
secretary of the commonwealth from 1872 
to 1878, and the position of delegate-at- 
large to the Republican national conventions 
of 1872, 1876, 1880 and 1888. He was the 
editor of the "Beaver Radical" and the 
"Philadelphia Record" for a time, and held 
many offices in the state conventions and on 
their committees. He was elected secre- 
tary of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
1869, and served three years, and in 1885 
was chosen state treasurer. In 1886 his 
great abilities pointed him out as the 



natural candidate for United States senator, 
and he was accordingly elected to that posi- 
tion and re-elected thereto in 1892. He 
was always noted for a genius for organiza- 
tion, and as a political leader had but lew 
peers. Cool, serene, far-seeing, resourceful, 
holding his impulses and forces in hand, he 
never quailed from any policy he adopted, 
and carried to success most, if not all, of 
the political campaigns in which he took 
part. 

JAMES K. JONES, a noted senator and 
political leader, attained national fame 
while chairman of the national executive 
committee of the Democratic party in the 
presidential campaign of 1896. He was a 
native of Marshall county, Mississippi, and 
was born September 29, 1839. His father, 
a well-to-do planter,setLled in Dallas county, 
Arkansas, in 1848, and there the subject of 
this sketch received a careful education. 
During the Civil war he served as a private 
soldier in the Confederate army. From 
1866 to 1873 he passed a quiet life as a 
planter, but in the latter year was admitted 
to the bar and began the practice of iaw. 
About the same time he was elected to the 
Arkansas senate and re-elected in 1874. In 
1877 he was made president of the senate 
and the following year was unsuccessful in 
obtaining a nomination as member of con- 
gress. In 1880 he was elected representa- 
tive and his ability at once placed him in a 
foremost position. He was re-elected to 
congress in 1882 and in 1884, and served as 
an influential member on the committee of 
ways and means. March 4, 1885, Mr. Jones 
took his seat in the United States senate to 
succeed James D. Walker, and was after- 
ward re-elected to the same office. In this 
branch of the national legislature his capa- 
bilities had a wider scope, and he was rec- 



172 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ognized as one of the ablest leaders of his 
party. 

On the nomination of William J. Bryan 
as its candidate for the presidency by the 
national convention of the Democratic 
party, held in Chicago in 1896, Mr. Jones 
■was made chairman of the national com- 
mittee. 

THEODORE THOMAS, one of the most 
celebrated musical directors America 
has known, was born in the kingdom of Han- 
over in 1835, and received his musical educa- 
tion from his father. He was a very apt scholar 
and played the violin at public concerts at 
the age of six years. He came with his 
parents to America in 1845, and joined the 
orchestra of the Italian Opera in New York 
City. He played the first violin in the 
orchestra which accompanied Jenny Lind 
in her first American concert. In 1861 Mr. 
Thomas established the orchestra that be- 
came famous under his management, and 
gave his first symphony concerts in New 
York in 1864. He began his first "summer 
night concerts" in the same city in 1868, 
and in 1869 he started on his first tour of 
the principal cities in the United States, 
which he made every year for many years. 
He was director of the College of Music in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, but resigned in 1880, after 
having held the position for three years. 

Later he organized one of the greatest 
and most successful orchestras ever brought 
together in the city of Chicago, and was 
very prominent in musical affairs during the 
World's Columbian Exposition, thereby add- 
ing greatly to his fame. 



CYRUS HALL McCORMICK. the fa- 
mous inventor and manufacturer, was 
born at Walnut Grove, Virginia, February 
1 5, 1809. When he was seven years old his 



father invented a reaping machine. It was 
a rude contrivance and not successful. In 
1 83 1 Cyrus made his invention of a reaping 
machine, and had it patented three years 
later. By successive improvements he was 
able to keep his machines at the head of 
its class during his life. In 1 845 he removed 
to Cincinnati, Ohio, and two years later 
located in Chicago, where he amassed a 
great fortune in manufacturing reapers and 
harvesting machinery. In 1859 he estab- 
lished the Theological Seminary of the 
Northwest at Chicago, an institution for pre- 
paring young men for the ministry in the 
Presbyterian church, and he afterward en- 
dowed a chair in the Washington and Lee 
College at Lexington, \'irginia. He mani- 
fested great interest in educational and re- 
ligious matters, and by his great wealth he 
was able to extend aid and encouragement 
to many charitable causes. His death oc- 
curred May 13, 1884. 



DAVID ROSS LOCKE.— Under the 
pen name of Petroleum \'. Nasby, this 
well-known humorist and writer made for 
himself a household reputation, and estab- 
lished a school that has many imitators. 

The subject of this article was born at 
Vestal, Broome county. New York, Sep- 
tember 30, 1833. After receiving his edu- 
cation in the county of his birth he en- 
tered the office of the ' ' Democrat, " at Cort- 
land, New York, where he learned the 
printer's trade. He was successively editor 
and publisher of the "Plymouth Advertiser," 
the "Mansfield Herald," the " Bucyrus 
Journal," and the "Findlay Jeffersonian." 
Later he became editor of the "Toledo 
Blade." In i860 he commenced his 
" Nasby" articles, several series of which 
have been given the world in book form. 
Under a mask of misspelling, and inn auaiut 



COMPENDIUM OF B/OGRAPHr. 



l.'S 



and humorous style, a keen political satire 
js couched — a most effective weapon. 
Mr. Locke was the author of a num- 
ber of serious political pamphlets, and 
later on a more pretentious work, " The 
Morals of Abou Ben Adhem." As a news- 
paper writer he gained many laurels and his 
works are widely read. Abraham Lincoln 
is said to have been a warm admirer of P. 
V. Nasby, of " Confedrit X Roads" fame. 
Mr. Locke died at Toledo, Ohio, February 
15, 1888. 

RUSSELL A. ALGER, noted as a sol- 
dier, governor and secretary of war, 
was born in Medina county, Ohio, February 
27, 1836, and was the son of Russell and 
Caroline (Moulton) Alger. At the age of 
twelve years he was left an orphan and pen- 
niless. For about a year he worked for 
his board and clothing, and attended school 
part of the time. In 1850 he found a place 
which paid small wages, and out of his 
scanty earnings helped his brother and sister. 
While there working on a farm he found 
time to attend the Richfield Academy, and 
by hard work between times managed to get 
a fair education for that time. The last 
two years of his attendance at this institu- 
tion of learning he taught school during the 
winter months. In 1857 he commenced the 
study of law, and was admitted to the bar 
in 1859. For a while he found employ- 
ment in Cleveland, Ohio, but impaired 
health induced him to remove to Grand 
Rapids, where he engaged in the lumber 
business. He was thus engaged when the 
Civil war broke out, and, his business suf- 
fering and his savings swept away, he en- 
listed as a private in the Second Michigan 
Cavalry. He was promoted to be captain 
the following month, and major for gallant 
conduct at Boonesville, Mississippi, July i. 



1862. October 16, 1862, he was made 
lieutenant-colonel of the Si.xth Michigan 
Cavalry, and in February, 1863, colonel of 
the Fifth Michigan Cavalry. He rendered 
e.xcellent service in the Gettysburg cam- 
paign. He was wounded at Boonesboro, 
Maryland, and on returning to his command 
took part with Sherman in the campaign in 
the Shenandoah Valley. For services ren- 
dered, that famous soldier recommended 
him for promotion, and he was brevetted 
major-general of volunteers. In 1866 Gen- 
eral Alger took up his residence at Detroit, 
and prospered exceedingly in his business, 
which was that of lumbering, and grew 
quite wealthy. In 1884 he was a delegate 
to the Republican national convention, and 
the same year was elected governor of 
Michigan. He declined a nomination for 
re-election to the latter office, in 1S87, and 
was the following year a candidate for the 
nomination for president. In 1889 he was 
elected commander-in-chief of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, and at different 
times occupied many offices in other or- 
ganizations. 

In March, 1897, President McKinley 
appointed General Alger secretary of war. 



CYRUS WEST FIELD, the father of 
submarine telegraphy, was the son of 
the Rev. David D. Field, D.D., a Congre- 
gational minister, and was born at Stock- 
bridge, Massachusetts, November 30, 18 19. 
He was educated in his native town, and at 
the age of fifteen years became a clerk in a 
store in New York City. Being gifted with 
e.xcellent business ability Mr. Field pros- 
pered and became the head of a large mer- 
cantile house. In 1853 he spent about six 
months in travel in South America. On his 
return he became interested in ocean teleg- 
raphy. Bein^ solicited to aid in the con- 



174 



C0MPENI)IUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



struction of a land telegraph across New 
Foundland to receive the news from a line 
of fast steamers it was proposed to run from 
from Ireland to St. Johns, the idea struck 
him to carry the line across the broad At- 
lantic. In 1850 Mr. Field obtained a con- 
cession from the legislature of Newfound- 
land, giving him the sole right for fifty years 
to land submarine cables on the shores of 
that island. In company with Peter Cooper, 
Moses Taylor, Marshall O. Roberts and 
Chandler White, he organized a company 
under the name of the New York, New- 
foundland & London Telegraph Company. 
In two years the line from New York across 
Newfoundland was built. The first cable 
connecting Cape Breton Island with New- 
foundland having been lost in a storm while 
being laid in 1855, another was put down in 
1856. In the latter year Mr. Field went to 
London and organized the Atlantic Tele- 
graph Company, furnishing one-fourth of the 
capital himself. Both governments loaned 
ships to carry out the enterprise. Mr. Field 
accompanied the expeditions of 1857 and 
two in 1858. The first and second cables 
were failures, and the third worked but a 
short time and then ceased. The people of 
both continents became incredulous of the 
feasibility of laying a successful cable under 
so wide an expanse of sea, and the war 
breaking out shortly after, nothing was done 
until 1865-66. Mr. Field, in the former 
year, again made the attempt, and the Great 
Eastern laid some one thousand two hun- 
dred miles when the cable parted and was 
lost. The following year the same vessel 
succeeded in laying the entire cable, and 
picked up the one lost the year before, and 
both were carried to America's shore. After 
thirteen years of care and toil Mr. Field had 
his reward. He was the recipient of many 
medals and honors from both home and 



abroad. He gave his attention after this 
to establishing telegraphic communication 
throughout the world and many other large 
enterprises, notably the construction of ele- 
vated railroads in New York. Mr. Field 
died July 1 1, 1892. 



G ROVER CLEVELAND, the twenty- 
second president of the United States, 
was born in Caldwell, Essex county, New 
Jersey, March 18, 1837, and was the son 
of Rev. Richard and Annie (Neale) Cleve- 
land. The father, of distinguished New 
England ancestry, was a Presbyterian min- 
ister in charge of the church at Caldwell at 
the time. 

When Grover was about three years of 
age the family removed to Fayetteville, 
Onondaga county. New York, where he 
attended the district school, and was in the 
academy for a short time. His father be- 
lieving that boys should early learn to labor, 
Grover entered a village store and worked 
for the sum of fifty dollars for the first year. 
While he was thus engaged the family re- 
moved to Clinton, New York, and there 
young Cleveland took up h's studies at the 
academy. The death of his father dashed 
all his hopes of a collegiate education, the 
family being left in straightened circum- 
stances, and Grover started out to battle 
for himself. After acting for a j-ear (1853- 
54) as assistant teacher and bookkeeper in 
the Institution for the Blind at New York 
City, he went to Buffalo. A short time 
after he entered the law office of Rogers, 
Bowen & Rogers, of that city, and after a 
hard struggle with adverse circumstances, 
was admitted to the bar in 1859. He be- 
came confidential and managing clerk for 
the firm under whom he had studied, and 
remained with them until 1863. In the lat- 
ter year he was appointed district attorney 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



175 



of Erie county. It was during his incum- 
bency of tiiis office that, on being nominated 
by the Democrats for supervisor, he came 
within thirteen votes of election, although 
the district was usually Republican by two 
hundred and fifty majority. In i866Grover 
Cleveland formed a partnership with Isaac 
V. Vanderpoel. The most of the work here 
fell upon the shoulders of our subject, and 
he soon won a good standing at the bar of 
the state. In 1869 Mr. Cleveland associated 
himself in business with A. P. Laning and 
Oscar Folsom, and under the firm name of 
Laning, Cleveland & Folsom soon built up a 
fair practice. In the fall of 1870 Mr. Cleve- 
land was elected sheriff of Erie county, an 
office which he filled for four years, after 
which he resumed his profession, with L. K. 
Bass and Wilson S. Bissell as partners. 
This firm was strong and popular and 
shortly was in possession of a lucrative 
practice. Mr. Bass retired from the firm 
in 1879, and George J. Secard was admit- 
ted a member in 188 1. In the latter year 
Mr. Cleveland was elected mayor of Buffalo, 
and in 1882 he was chosen governor by 
the enormous majority of one hundred and 
ninety-two thousand votes. July 11, 1884, 
he was nominated for the presidency by the 
Democratic national convention, and in 
November following was elected. 

Mr. Cleveland, after serving one term as 
president of the United States, in 1888 was 
nominated by his party to succeed himself, 
but he failed of the election, being beaten 
by Benjamin Harrison. In 1892, however, 
being nominated again in opposition to the 
then incumbent of the presidency. Mr. Har- 
rison, Grover Cleveland was elected pres- 
ident for the second time and served for the 
usual term of four years. In 1897 Mr. 
Cleveland retired from the chair of the first 
magistrate of the nation, and in New York 



City resumed the practice of law, in which 
city he had established himself in 1889. 

June 2, 1886, Grover Cleveland was 
united in marriage with Miss Frances Fol- 
som, the daughter of his former partner. 



ALEXANDER WINCHELL, for many 
years one of the greatest of American 
scientists, and one of the most noted and 
prolific writers on scientific subjects, was 
born in Duchess county. New York, Decem- 
ber 31, 1824. He received a thorough col- 
legiate education, and graduated at the 
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connect- 
icut, in 1847. His mind took a scientific 
turn, which manifested itself while he was 
yet a boy, and in 1848 he became teacher 
of natural sciences at the Armenian Semi- 
nary, in his native state, a position which 
he filled for three years. In 185 1-3 he oc- 
cupied the same position in the Mesopo- 
tamia Female Seminary, in Alabama, after 
which he was president of the Masonic Fe- 
male Seminary, in Alabama. In 1853 he 
became connected with the University of 
Michigan, at Ann Arbor, at which institu- 
tion he performed the most important work 
of his life, and gained a wide reputation as 
a scientist. He held many important posi- 
tions, among which were the following: 
Professor of physics and civil engineering at 
the University of Michigan, also of geology, 
zoology and botany, and later professor of 
geology and paleontology at the same insti- 
tution. He also, for a time, was president 
of the Michigan Teachers' Association, and 
state geologist of Michigan. Professor 
Winchell was a very prolific writeron scien- 
tific subjects, and published many standard 
works, his most important and widely known 
being those devoted to geology. He also 
contributed a large number of articles tc 
scientific and popular journals. 



176 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ANDREW HULL FOOTE. of the 
United States navy, was a native of 
New England, born at New Haven, Con- 
necticut, May 4, 1808. He entered the 
navy, as a midshipman, December 4, 1822. 
He slowly rose in his chosen profession, at- 
taining the rank of lieutenant in 1830, com- 
mander in 1852 and captain in 1861. 
Among the distinguished men in the break- 
ing out of the Civil war, but few stood higher 
in the estimation of his brother officers than 
Foote, and when, in the fall of 1861. he 
was appointed to the command of the flotilla 
then build. ng on the Mississippi, the act 
gave greac satisfaction to the service. 
Although embarrassed by want of navy 
yards and supplies, Foote threw himself into 
his new work with unusual energy. He 
overcame ail obstacles and in the new, and, 
until that time, untried experiment, of creat- 
ing and maintaining a navy on a river, 
achieved a success beyond the e.xpectations 
of the country. Great incredulity existed as 
to the possibility of carrying on hostilities 
on a river where batteries from the shore 
might bar the passage. But in spite of all, 
Foote soon had a navy on the great river, 
and by the heroic qualities of the crews en- 
trusted to him, demonstrated the utility of 
this new departure in naval architecture. 
All being prepared, February 6, 1862, Foote 
took Fort Henry after a hotly-contested 
action. On the 14th of the same month, 
for an hour and a half engaged the batteries 
of Fort Donelson, with four ironclads and 
two wooden gunboats, thereby dishearten- 
ing the garrison and assisting in its capture. 
April 7th of the same year, after several 
hotly-contested actions, Commodore Foote 
received the surrender of Island No. 10, one 
of the great strongholds of the Confederacy 
on the Mississippi river. Foote having been 
wounded at Fort Donelson, and by neglect 



it having become so serious as to endanger 
his life, he was forced to resign his command 
and return home. June 16, 1862, he re- 
ceived the thanks of congress and was pro- 
moted to the rank of rear admiral. He was 
appointed chief of the bureau of equipment 
and recruiting. June 4, 1863, he was 
ordered to the fleet off Charleston, to super- 
cede Rear Admiral Dupont, but on his way 
to that destination was taken sick at New 
York, and died June 26, 1863. 



NELSON A. MILES, the well-known sol- 
dier, was born at Westminster, Massa- 
chusetts, August 8, 1 839. His ancestors set- 
tled in that state in 1643 among the early 
pioneers, and their descendants were, many 
of them, to be found among those battling 
against Great Britain during Revolutionary 
times and during the war of 1812. Nelson 
was reared on a farm, received an academic 
education, and in early manhood engaged in 
mercantile pursuits in Boston. Early in 

1 86 1 he raised a company and offered hi? 
services to the government, and although 
commissioned as captain, on account of his 
youth went out as first lieutenant in the 
Twenty-second Massachusetts Infantry. In 

1862 he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel 
and colonel of the Sixty-first New York In- 
fantry. At the request of Generals Grant 
and Meade he was made a brigadier by 
President Lincoln. He participated in all 
but one of the battles of the Army of the 
Potomac until the close of the war. During 
the latter part of the time he commanded 
the first division of the Second Corps. 
General Miles was wounded at the battles 
of Fair Oaks, Fredericksburg and Chan- 
cellorsville, and received four brevets for 
distinguished service. During the recon- 
struction period he commanded in North 
Carolina, and on the reorganization of the 



I 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



177 



regular army he was made colonel of in- 
fantry. In 1880 he was promoted to the 
rank of brigadier-general, and in 1890 to 
that of major-general. He successfully con- 
ducted several campaigns among the In- 
dians, and his name is known among the 
tribes as a friend when they are peacefully 
inclined. He many times averted war 
with the red men by judicious and humane 
settlement of difficulties without the military 
power. In 1892 General Miles was given 
command of the proceedings in dedicating 
the World's Fair at Chicago, and in the 
summer of 1894, during the great railroad 
strike at the same city, General Miles, then 
in command of the department, had the 
disposal of the troops sent to protect the 
United States mails. On the retirement of 
General J. M. Schofield, in 1895, General 
Miles became the ranking major-general of 
the United States army and the head of its 
forces. 

JUNIUS BRUTUS BOOTH, the great 
<J actor, though born in London (1796), is 
more intimately connected with the Amer- 
ican than with the English stage, and his 
popularity in America was almost un- 
bounded, while in England he was not a 
prime favorite. He presented " Richard III. " 
in Richmond on his first appearance on the 
American stage in 1821. This was his 
greatest role, and in it he has never had an 
equal. In October of the same year he 
appeared in New York. After a long and 
successful career he gave his final perform- 
ance at New Orleans in 1852. He con- 
tracted a severe cold, and for lack of proper 
medical attention, it resulted in his death 
on NoYcmber 30th of that year. He was, 
without question, one of the greatest tra- 
gedians that ever lived. In addition to his 
professional art and genius, he was skilled 



in languages, drawing, painting and sculp- 
ture. In his private life he was reserved, 
and even eccentric. Strange stories are 
related of his peculiarities, and on his farm 
near Baltimore he forbade the use of animal 
food, the taking of animal life, and even the 
felling of trees, and brought his butter and 
eggs to the Baltimore markets in person. 

Junius Brutus Booth, known as the elder 
Booth, gave to the world three sons of note: 
Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., the husband of 
Agnes Booth, the actress; John Wilkes 
Booth, the author of the greatest tragedy 
in the life of our nation; Edwin Booth, in 
his day the greatest actor of America, if not 
of the world. 

JAMES MONTGOMERY BAILEY, fa- 
mous as the "Danbury News Man," 
was one of the best known American humor- 
ists, and was born September 25, 1841, at 
Albany, N. Y. He adopted journalism as a 
profession and started in his chosen work on 
the "Danbury Times," which paper he pur- 
chased on his return from the war. Mr. 
Bailey also purchased the "Jeffersonian," 
another paper of Danbury, and consolidated 
them, forming the "Danbury News," which 
paper soon acquired a celebrity throughout 
the United States, from an incessant flow of 
rich, healthy, and original humor, which the 
pen of the editor imparted to its columns, 
and he succeeded in raising the circulation 
of the paper from a few hundred copies a 
week to over forty thousand. The facilities 
of a country printing office were not so com- 
plete in those days as they are now, but Mr. 
Bailey was resourceful, and he put on re- 
lays of help and ran his presses night and 
day, and always prepared his matter a week 
ahead of time. The "Danbury News Man" 
was a new figure in literature, as his humor 
was so different from that of the newspaper 



178 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



■wits — who had preceded him, and he maybe 
called the pioneer of that school now so 
familiar. Mr. Bailey published in book 
form "Life in Danbury" and "The Danbury 
News Man's Almanac." One of his most 
admirable traits was philanthrophy, as he 
gave with unstinted generosity to all comers, 
and died comparatively poor, notwithstand- 
ing his ownership of a very profitable busi- 
ness which netted him an income of $40,000 
a year. He died March 4, 1894. 



MATTHEW HALE CARPENTER, a 
famous lawyer, orator and senator, 
was born in Moretown, Vermont, December 
22, 1824. After receiving a common-school 
education he entered the United States 
Military Academy at West Point, but only 
remained two years. On returning to his 
home he commenced the study of law with 
Paul Dillingham, afterwards governor of 
"Vermont, and whose daughter he married. 
In 1847 he was admitted to practice at the 
bar in Vermont, but he went to Boston and 
for a time studied with Ruf us Choate. In 1848 
he moved west, settling at Beloit, Wisconsin, 
and commencing the practice of his profes- 
sion soon obtained a wide reputation for 
ability. In 1856 Mr. Carpenter removed to 
Milwaukee, where he found a wider field for 
his now increasing powers. During the 
Civil war, although a strong Democrat, he 
■was loyal to the government and aided the 
Union cause to his utmost. In 1868 he 
■was counsel for the government in a test 
case to settle the legality of the reconstruc- 
tion act before the United States supreme 
court, and won his case against Jeremiah S. 
Black. This gave him the election for sen- 
ator from Wisconsin in 1869, and he served 
until 1875, during part of which time he was 
president pro tcviporc of the senate. Failing 
oi a re-election Mr. Carpenter resumed the 



practice of law, and when William W. 
Belknap, late secretary of war, was im- 
peached, entered the case for General 
Belknap, and secured an acquittal. During 
the sitting of the electoral commission of 
1877, Mr. Carpenter appeared for Samuel 
J. Tilden, although the Republican man- 
agers had intended to have him represent 
R. B. Hayes. Mr. Carpenter was elected 
to the United States senate again in 1879, 
and remained a member of that body until 
the day of his death, which occurred at 
Washington, District of Columbia, Feb- 
ruary 24, 18S1. 

Senator Carpenter's real name was De- 
catur Merritt Hammond Carpenter but about 
1852 he changed it to the one by which he 
was universally known. 



T 



HOMAS E. WATSON, lawyer and 
congressman, the well-known Geor- 
gian, whose name appears at the head of 
this sketch, made himself a place in the his- 
tory of our country by his ability, energy 
and fervid oratory. He was born in Col- 
umbia (now McDuffie) county, Georgia, 
September 5, 1856. He had a common- 
school education, and in 1872 entered Mer- 
cer University, at Macon, Georgia, as fresh- 
man, but for want of money left the college 
at the end of his sophomore year. He 
taught school, studying law at the same 
time, until 1875, when he was admitted to 
the bar. He opened an office and com- 
menced practice in Thomson, Georgia, in 
November, 1876. He carried on a success- 
ful business, and bought land and farmed on 
an extensive scale. 

Mr. Watson was a delegate to the Demo- 
cratic state convention of 1880, and was a 
member of the house of representatives of 
the legislature of his native state in 1882. 
In 1888 he was an elector-at-large on thf 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



179 



Cleveland ticket, and in 1890 was elected 
to represent his district in the fifty-second 
congress. This latter election is said to have 
been due entirely to Mr. Watson's "dash- 
ing display of ability, eloquence and popular 
power." In his later years he championed 
the alliance principles and policies until he 
became a leader in the movement. In the 
heated campaign of 1896, Mr. Watson was 
nominated as the candidate for vice-presi- 
dent on the Bryan ticket by that part of the 
People's party that would not endorse the 
nominee for the same position made by the 
Democratic party. 



FREDERICK A. P. BARNARD, mathe- 
matician, physicist and educator, was 
born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, May 5, 1 809. 
He graduated from Yale College in 1828, and 
in 1830 became a tutor in the same. From 
1S37 to 1848 he was professor of mathe- 
matics and natural philosophy in the Uni- 
versity of Alabama, and from 1848 to 1850, 
professor of chemistry and natural history 
in the same educational institution. In 
1854 he became connected with the Univer- 
sity of Mississippi, of which he became 
president in 1856, and chancellor in 1858. 
In 1854 he took orders in the Protestant 
Episcopal church. In 1S61 Professor Barnard 
resigned his chancellorship and chair in the 
university, and in 1863 and 1864 was con- 
nected with the United States coast survey 
in charge of chart printing and lithography. 
In May, 1864, he was elected president of 
Columbia College, New York City, which 
he served for a number of years. 

Professor Barnard received *:he honorary 
degree of LL. D. from Jefferson College, 
Mississippi, in 1855, and from Ya'e College 
in 1859; also the degree of S. T. D. from 
the University of Mississippi in 1861, and 
that of L. H. D. from the regents of the 



University of the State of New York in 1872. 
In i860 he was a member of the eclipse 
party sent by the United States coast sur- 
vey to Labrador, and during his absence 
was elected president of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science. la 
the act of congress establishing the National 
Academy of Sciences in 1863, he was named 
as one of the original corporators. In 1867 
he was one of the United States commis- 
sioners to the Paris Exposition. He was 
a member of the American Philosophical 
Society, associate member of the Amer- 
ican Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 
many other philosophical and scientific 
societies at home and abroad. Dr. Barnard 
was thoroughly identified with the progress 
of the age in those branches. His published 
works relate wholly to scientific or educa- 
tional subjects, chief among which are the 
following: Report on Collegiate Education; 
Art Culture; History of the American Coast 
Survey; University Education; Undulatory 
Theory of Light; Machinery and Processes 
of the Industrial Arts, and Apparatus of the 
Exact Sciences, Metric System of Weights 
and Measures, etc. 



EDWIN McMASTERS STANTON, the 
secretary of war during the great Civil 
war, was recognized as one of America's 
foremost public men. He was born Decem- 
ber 19, 18 14, at Steubenville, Ohio, where 
he received his education and studied law. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1836, and 
was reporter of the supreme court of Ohio 
from 1842 until 1845. He removed to 
Washington in 1856 to attend to his prac- 
tice before the United States supreme 
court, and in 1858 he went to California as 
counsel for the government in certain land 
cases, which he carried to a successful 
conclusion. Mr. Stanton was appointed 



180 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



attorney-general of the United States in 
December, i860, by President Buchanan. 
On March 4, 1861, Mr. Stanton went with 
the outgoing administration and returned to 
the practice of his profession. He was 
appointed secretary of war by President 
Lincoln January 20, 1862, to succeed Simon 
Cameron. After the assassination of Presi- 
dent Lincoln and the accession of Johnson 
to the presidency, Mr. Stanton was still in 
the same office. He held it for three years, 
and by his strict adherence to the Repub- 
lican party, he antagonized President John- 
son, who endeavored to remove him. On 
August 5, 1867, the president requested him 
to resign, and appointed General Grant to 
succeed him, but when congress convened 
in December the senate refused to concur in 
the suspension. Mr. Stanton returned to 
his post until the president again removed 
him from office, but was again foiled by 
congress. Soon after, however, he retired 
voluntarily from office and took up the 
practice of law, in which he engaged until 
his death, on December 24, 1869. 



ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, the eminent 
theologian and founder of the church 
known as Disciples of Christ, was born in 
the country of Antrim, Ireland, in June, 
1788, and was the son of Rev. Thomas 
Campbell, a Scoth-Irish "Seceder. " After 
studying at the University of Glasgow, he, 
in company with his father, came to America 
in 1808, and both began labor in western 
Pennsylvania to restore Christianity to 
apostolic simplicity. They organized a 
church at Brush Run, Washington county, 
Pennsylvania, in 181 1, which, however, the 
year following, adopted Baptist views, and 
in 1 81 3, witli other congregations joined a 
Baptist association. Some of the under- 
lymg principles and many practices of the 



Campbells and their disciples were repug- 
nant to the Baptist church and considerable 
friction was the result, and 1827 saw the 
separation of that church from the Church 
of Christ, as it is sometimes called. The 
latter then reorganized themselves anew. 
They reject all creeds, professing to receive 
the Bible as their only guide. In most mat- 
ters of faith they are essentially in accord with 
the other Evangelical Christian churches, 
especially in regard to the person and work 
of Christ, the resurrection and judgment. 
They celebrate the Lord's Supper weekly, 
hold that repentance and faith should precede 
baptism, attaching much importance to the 
latter ordinance. On all other points they 
encourage individual liberty of thought. In 
1841, Alexander Campbell founded Bethany 
\ College, West Virginia, of which he was 
president for many years, and died March 4, 
1866. 

The denomination which they founded 
is quite a large and important church body 
in the United States. They support quite 
a number of institutions of learning, among 
which are: Bethany College, West Virginia; 
Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio; Northwestern 
Christian University. Indianapolis, Indiana; 
Eureka College, Illinois; Kentucky Univer- 
sity, Lexington, Kentucky; Oskaloosa 
College, Iowa; and a number of seminaries 
and schools. They also support several 
monthly and quarterly religious periodicals 
and many papers, both in the United States 
and Great Britain and her dependencies. 



WILLIAM L.WILSON, the noted West 
Virginian, who was postmaster-gener- 
al under President Cleveland's second ad- 
ministration, won distinction as the father 
of the famous " Wilson bill," which became 
a law under the same administration. Mr. 
Wilson was born May 3, 1843, in Jeffer- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



181 



son county. West Virginia, and received 
a good education at the Charlestovvn 
Academy, where he prepared himself for 
college. He attended the Columbian Col- 
lege in the District of Columbia, from 
which he graduated in i860, and then 
attended the University of Virginia. Mr. 
Wilson served in the Confederate army dur- 
ing the war, after which he was a professor 
in Columbian College. Later he entered 
into the practice of law at Charlestown. 
He attended the Democratic convention 
held at Cincinnati in 1880, as a delegate, 
and later was chosen as one of the electors 
for the state-at-large on the Hancock 
ticket. In the Democratic convention at 
Chicago in 1892, Mr. Wilson was its per- 
manent president. He was elected pres- 
ident of the West Virginia University in 
1882, entering upon the duties of his office 
on September 6, but having received the 
nomination for the forty-seventh congress 
on the Democratic ticket, he resigned the 
presidency of the university in June, 1883, 
to take his seat in congress. Mr. Wil- 
son was honored by the Columbian Uni- 
versity and the Hampden-Sidney College, 
both of which conferred upon him the de- 
gree of LL. D. In 1884 he was appointed 
regent of the Smithsonian Institution at 
^^'ashington for two years, and at the end 
of his term was re-app6inted. He was 
elected to the forty-seventh, forty-ninth, 
fiftieth, fifty-first, fifty-second and fifty- 
third congresses, but was defeated for re- 
election to the fifty-fourth congress. Upon 
the resignation of Mr. Bissell from the office 
of postmaster-general, Mr. Wilson was ap- 
pointed to fill the vacancy by President 
Cleveland. Hi.s many years of public serv- 
ice and the prominent part he took in the 
discussion of public questions gave him a 
national reputation. 



CALVIN S. BRICE, a successful and 
noted financier and politician, was 
born at Denmark, Ohio, September 17, 
1845, of an old Maryland family, who trace 
their lineage from the Bryces, or Bruces, of 
Airth, Scotland. The father of our subject 
was a prominent Presbyterian clergyman, 
who removed to Ohio in 1812. Calvin S. 
Brice was educated in the common schools 
of his native town, and at the age of thir- 
teen entered the preparatory department of 
Miami University at O.xford, Ohio, and the 
following year entered the freshman class. 
On the breaking out of the Civil war, 
although but fifteen years old, he enlisted in 
a company of three-months men. He re- 
turned to complete his college course, but 
re-enlisted in Company A, Eighty-sixth 
Ohio Infantry, and served in the Virginia 
campaign. He then returned to college, 
from which he graduated in 1863. In 1864 
he organized Company E, One Hundred 
and Eightieth Ohio Infantry, and served 
until the close of hostilities, in the western 
armies. 

On his return home Mr. Brice entered 
the law department of the University of 
Michigan, and in 1866 was admitted to the 
bar in Cincinnati. In the winter of 1870- 
71 he went to Europe in the interests of the 
Lake Erie & Louisville Railroad and pro- 
cured a foreign loan. This road became 
the Lake Erie & Western, of which, in 
1887, Mr. Brice became president. This 
was the first railroad in which he had a 
personal interest. The conception, build- 
ing and sale of the New York, Chicago & 
St. Louis Railroad, known as the "Nickel 
Plate," was largely due to him. He was 
connected with many other railroads, among 
which may be mentioned the following: 
Chicago & Atlantic; Ohio Central; Rich- 
mond & Danville; Richmond & West Point 



182 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPlir. 



Terminal; East Tennessee, Virginia & 
Georgia; Memphis & Charleston; Mobile & 
Birmingham; Kentucky Central; Duluth, 
South Shore & Atlantic, and the Marquette, 
Houghton & Ontonagon. In 1890 he was 
elected United States senator from Ohio. 
Notwithstanding his extensive business inter- 
ests, Senator Brice gave a considerable 
time to political matters, becoming one of 
the leaders of the Democratic party and one 
of the most widely known men in tiie 
country. 

BENJAMIN HARRISON, twenty-third 
president of the United States, was 
born August 20, 1833, at North Bend, 
Hamilton county, Ohio, in the house of his 
grandfather, General William Henry Har- 
rison, afterwards president of the United 
States. His great-grandfather, Benjamin 
Harrison, was a member of the Continental 
congress, signed the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and was three times elected gov- 
ernor of Virginia. 

The subject of this sketch entered Farm- 
ers College at an early age, and two years 
later entered Miami University, at Oxford, 
Ohio. Upon graduation he entered the 
office of Stover & Gwyne, of Cincinnati, as a 
law student. He was admitted to the bar 
two years later, and having inherited about 
eight hundred dollars worth of property, he 
married the daughter of Doctor Scott, pres- 
ident of a female school at O.xford, Ohio, 
and selected Indianapolis, Indiana, to begin 
practice. In 1S60 he was nominated by 
Ihe Republicans as candidate for state 
supreme court reporter, and did his first 
political speaking in that campaign. He 
was elected, and after two years in that 
position he organized the Seventieth Indi- 
ana Infantry, of which he was made colonel, 
and with his regiment joined General Sher- 



man's army. For bravery displayed at Re- 
saca and Peach Tree Creek he was made a 
brigadier-general. In the meantime the 
office of supreme court reporter had been 
declared vacant, and another party elected 
to fill it. In the fall of 1864, having been 
nominated for that office. General Harrison 
obtained a thirty-day leave of absence, went 
to Indiana, canvassed the state and was 
elected. As he was about to rejoin his 
command he was stricken down by an attack 
of fever. After his recovery he joined 
General Sherman's army and participated in 
the closing events of the war. 

In 1868 General Harrison declined to 
be a candidate for the office of supreme 
court reporter, and returned to the practice 
of the law. His brilliant campaign for the 
office of governor of Indiana in 1876, 
brought him into public notice, although he 
was defeated. He took a prominent part 
in the presidential canvass of 1880, and was 
chosen United States senator from Indiana, 
serving si.\ years. He then returned to the 
practice of his profession. In 1888 he was 
selected by the Republican convention at 
Chicago as candidate for the presidency, and 
after a heated campaign was elected over 
Cleveland. He was inaugurated March 4, 
1889, and signed the McKinley bill October 
I, 1890, perhaps the most distinctive feature 
of his administration. In 1892 he was 
again the nominee of the Republican party 
for president, but was defeated by Grover 
Cleveland, the Democratic candidate, and 
again resumed the practice of law in Indian- 
apolis. 

JOHN CRAIG HAVEMEYER. the 
celebrated merchant and sugar refiner, 
was born in New York City in 1833. His 
father, William F. Havemeyer, and grand- 
father, William Havemeyer, were both sugar 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



188 



refiners. The latter named came from 
Buckeburg, Germany, in 1799, and settled 
in New York, establishing one of the first 
refineries in that city. William F. succeeded 
his father, and at an early age retired from 
business with a competency. He was three 
times mayor of his native city. New York. 
John C. Havemeyer was educated in 
private schools, and was prepared for college 
at Columbia College grammar school. 
Owing to failing eyesight he was unable to 
finish his college course, and began his 
business career in a wholesale grocery store, 
where he remained two years. In 1854, 
after a year's travel abroad, he assumed the 
responsibility of the office work in the sugar 
refinery of Havemeyer & Molter, but two 
years later etablished a refinery of his o»i 
in Brooklyn. Tb!_ -■ft-^rwards developed into 
the immense bus inf ."SO' Havemeyer & Elder 
The capital was furnished by his father, 
and, chafing under the anxiety caused by the 
use of borrowed money, he sold out his 
interest and returned to Havemeyer & 
Molter. This firm dissolving the next year, 
John C. declined an offer of partnership 
from the successors, not wishing to use 
borrowed money. For two years he remain- 
ed with the house, receiving a share of the 
profits as compensation. For some years 
thereafter he was engaged in the commission 
business, until failing health caused his 
retirement. In 1871, he again engaged in 
the sugar refining business at Greenport, 
Long Island, with his brother and another 
partner, under the firm name of Havemeyer 
Brothers & Co. Here he remained until 
1880, when his health again declined. 
During the greater part of his life Mr. 
Havemeyer was identified with many benev- 
olent societies, including the New York 
Port Society, Missionary Society of the 
Methodist Church, American Bible Society, 



New York Sabbath School Society and 
others. He was active in Young Men's 
Christian Association work in New York, 
and organized and was the first president of 
an affiliated society of the same at Yonkers. 
He was director of several railroad corpo- 
rations and a trustee of the Continental Trust 
Company of New York. 



WALTER QUINTIN GRESHAM, an 
emirent American statesman and 
jurist, was born March 17, 1833, near Cory- 
don, Harrison county, Indiana. He ac- 
quired his education m the local schools of 
the county and at Bloomington Academy, 
akhough he did not graduate. After leav- 
ing college he read law with Judge Porter 
at Corydon, and just beiorc the wa." !" be- 
gan to take an interest in politics. Mr. 
Gresham was elected to the Jegislatir' aom 
Harrison county as a Republ can; previous 
to this the district had been represented by 
a Democrat. At the commencement of 
hostilities he was made lieutenant-colonel of 
the Thirty-eighth Indiana Infantry, but 
served in that regiment only a short time, 
when he was appointed colonel of the Fifty- 
third Indiana, and served under General 
Grant at the siege of Vicksburg as brigadier- 
general. Later he was under Sherman in 
the famous "March to the Sea," and com- 
manded a division of I^lair's corps at the 
siege of Atlanta where he was so badly 
wounded in the leg that he was compelled 
to return home. On his way home he was 
forced to stop at New Albany, where he re- 
mained a year before he was able to leave. 
He was brevetted major-general at the close 
of the war. While at New Albany, Mr. 
Gresham was appointed state agent, his 
duty being to pay the interest on the state 
debt in New York, and he -ran twice for 
congress against ex-Speaker Kerr, but was 



184 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



defeated in both cases, although he greatly 
reduced the Democratic majority. He was 
held in high esteem by President Grant, 
who offered him the portfolio of the interior 
but Mr. Gresham declined, but accepted 
the appointment of United States judge for 
Indiana to succeed David McDonald. 
Judge Gresham served on the United States 
district court bench until 1883, when he 
was appointed postmaster-general by Presi- 
dent Arthur, but held that office only a few 
months when he was made secretary of the 
treasury. Near the end of President 
Arthur's term. Judge Gresham was ap- 
pointed judge of the United States circuit 
court of the district composed of Indiana, 
Illinois and contiguous states, which he held 
until 1893. Judge Gresham was one of the 
presidential possibilities in the National Re- 
publican convention in 1888, when General 
Harrison was nominated, and was also men- 
tioned for president 'n 1892. Later the 
People's party iniue f. strenuous effort to 
induce him to become their candidate for 
president, he refusing the offer, howeve', 
and a few weeks before the election he an- 
nounced that he would support Mr. Cleve- 
land, the Democratic nominee for president. 
Upon the election' of Mr. Cleveland in the 
fall of 1892, Judge Gresham was made the 
secretary of state, and filled that position 
until his death on May 28, 1895, at Wash- 
ington, District of Columbia. 



ELISHA B. ANDREWS, noted as an ed- 
ucator and college president, was born 
at Hinsdale, New Hampshire, January 10, 
[844, his father and mother being Erastus 
and Elniira (Bartlett) Andrews. In 1861, 
he entered the service of the general gov- 
ernment as private and non-commissioned 
officer in the First Connecticut Heavy Ar- 
tillery, and in 1863 was promoted to the 



rank of second lieutenant. Returning home 
he was prepared for college at Powers In- 
stitute and at the Wesleyan Academy, and 
entered Brown University. From here he 
was graduated in 1870. For the succeeding 
two years he was principal of the Connecti- 
cut Literary Institute at Suffield, Connecticut. 
Completing a course at the Newton Theo- 
logical Institute, he was ordained pastor of 
the First Baptist church at Beverly, Massa- 
chusetts, July 2, 1874. The following 
year he became president of the Denison 
University, at Granville, Ohio. In 1S79 
he accepted the professorship of homiletics, 
pastoral duties and church polity at Newton 
Theological Institute. In 1882 he was 
elected to the chair of history and political 
economy at Brown University. The Uni- 
versity of Nebraska honored him with an 
LL. D. in 1884, and the same year Colby 
University conferred the degree of D. D. 
In 1888 he became professor of political 
economy and public economy at Cornell 
University, but the next year returned to 
Brown University as its president, '^rom 
the time of his inauguration the college work 
broadened in many ways. Many timely 
and generous donations from friends and 
alumni of the college were influenced by 
him, and large additions made -to the same. 
Professor Andrews published, in 18S7, 
"Institutes of General History," and in 
1888, " Institutes of Economics." 



JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, the subject 
of the present biography, was, during his 
life, one of the most distinguished chemists 
and scientific writers in America. He was 
an Englishman by birth, born at Liverpool, 
May 5, 181 1, and was reared in his native 
land, receiving an excellent education, 
graduating at the University of London. In 
1833 he came to the United States, and 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



187 



settled first in Pennsylvania. He graduated 
in medicine at the University of Philadel- 
phia, in 1836, and for three years following 
was professor of chemistry and physiology 
at Hampden-Sidney College. He then be- 
came professor of chemistry in the New York 
University, with which institution he was 
prominently connected for many years. It 
is stated on excellent authority that Pro- 
fessor Draper, in 1839, took the first photo- 
graphic picture ever taken from life. He 
was a great student, and carried on many 
important and intricate experiments along 
scientific lines. He discovered many of the 
fundamental facts of spectrum analysis, 
which he published. He published a number 
of works of great merit, many of which are 
recognized as authority upon the subjects of 
which they treat. Among his work were: 
"Human Physiology, Statistical and Dyna- 
mical of the Conditions and Cause of Life 
in Man," "History of Intellectual Develop- 
ment of Europe," "History of the Ameri- 
can Civil War," besides a number of works 
on chemistry, optics and mathematics. Pro- 
fessor Draper continued to hold a high place 
among the scientific scholars of America 
until his death, which occurred in January, 
1882. 

GEORGE W. PECK, ex-governor of 
the state of Wisconsin and a famous 
journalist and humorist, was born in Jeffer- 
son county. New York, September 28, 1840. 
When he was about three years of age his 
parents removed to Wisconsin, settling near 
Whitewater, where young Peck received his 
education at the public schools. At fifteen 
he entered the office of the "Whitewater 
Register," where he learned the printer's 
art. He helped start the "Jefferson County 
Republican" later on, but sold out his 

interest therein and set type in the office of 
11 



the "State Journal," at Madison. At the 
outbreak of the war he enlisted in the 
Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry as a private, and 
after serving four years returned a 3econd 
lieutenant. He then started the " Ripon 
Representative," which he sold not long 
after, and removing to New York, was on 
the staff of Mark Pomeroy's "Democrat." 
Going to La Crosse, later, he conducted the 
La Crosse branch paper, a half interest in 
which he bought in 1874. He next started 
"Peck's Sun," which four years later he 
removed to Milwaukee. While in La 
Crosse he was chief of police one year, and 
also chief clerk of the Democratic assembly 
in 1874. It was in 1878 that Mr. Peck 
took his paper to Milwaukee, and achieved 
his first permanent success, the circulation 
increasing to 80,000. For ten years he was 
regarded as one of the most original, versa- 
tile and entertaining writers in the country, 
and he has delineated every phase of 
country newspaper life, army life, domestic 
experience, travel and city adventure. Up 
to 1890 Mr. Peck took but little part in 
politics, but in that year was elected mayor 
of Milwaukee on the Derrtocratic ticket. 
The following August he was elected gov- 
ernor of Wisconsin by a large majority, 
the "Bennett School Bill" figuring to a 
large extent in his favor. 

Mr. Peck, besides many newspaper arti- 
cles in his peculiar vein and numerous lect- 
ures, bubbling over with fun, is known to 
fame by the following books: "Peck's Bad 
Boy and his Pa," and "The Grocery Man 
and Peck's Bad Boy." 



CHARLES O'CONOR, who was for 
many years the acknowledged leader 
of the legal profession of New York City, 
was also conceded to be one of the greatest 
lawyers America has produced. He was 



188 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



born in New York City in 1804, his father 
being an educated Irish gentleman. Charles 
received a common-school education, and 
early took up the study of law, being ad- 
mitted to practice in 1824. His close ap- 
plication and untiring energy and industry 
soon placed him in the front rank of the 
profession, and within a few years he was 
handling many of the most important cases. 
One of the first great cases he had and which 
gained him a wide reputation, was that of 
"Jack, the Fugitive Slave," in 1835, in which 
his masterful argument before the supreme 
court attracted wide attention and com- 
ment. Charles O'Conor was a Democrat 
all his life. He did not aspire to office- 
holding, however, and never held any office 
except that of district attorney under Presi- 
dent Pierce's administration, which he only 
retained a short time. He took an active 
interest, however, in public questions, and 
was a member of the state (New York) con- 
stitutional convention in 1864. In 1868 he 
was nominated for the presidency by the 
" Extreme Democrats." His death occurred 
in May, 1884. 

SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER, a noted 
American officer and major-general in 
the Confederate army, was born in Ken- 
tucky in 1823. He graduated from West 
Point Military Academy in 1844, served in 
the United States infantry and was later as- 
signed to commissary duty with the rank of 
captain. He served several years at fron- 
tier posts, and was assistant professor in the 
military academy in 1846. He was with 
General Scott in the Mexican war, and en- 
gaged in all the battles from Vera Cruz to 
the capture of the Mexican capital. He 
was wounded at Cherubusco and brevetted 
first lieutenant, and at Molino del Rey was 
brevetted captain. After the close of the 



Mexican war he returned to West Point as 
assistant instructor, and was then assigned 
to commissary duty at New York. He re- 
signed in 1855 and became sup>erintendent 
of construction of the Chicago custom house. 
He was made adjutant-general, with the 
rank of colonel, of Illinois militia, and was 
colonel of Illinois volunteers raised for the 
Utah expedition, but was not mustered into 
service. In i860 he removed to Kentucky, 
where he settled on a farm near Louisville 
and became inspector-general in command 
of the Kentucky Home Guards. At the 
opening of the Civil war he joined the Con- 
federate army, and was given command at 
Bowling Green, Kentucky, which he was 
compelled to abandon after the capture of 
Fort Henry. He then retired to Fort Don- 
elson, and was there captured with sixteen 
thousand men, and an immense store of pro- 
visions, by General Grant, in February, 
1862. He was held as a prisoner of war 
at Fort Warren until August of that year. 
He commanded a division of Hardee's corps 
in Bragg's Army of the Tennessee, and was 
afterward assigned to the third division and 
participated in the battles of Chickamauga, 
and Murfreesboro. He was with Kirby 
Smith when that general surrendered his 
army to General Canby in May, 1865. He 
was an unsuccessful candidate for the vice- 
presidency on the Gold Democratic ticket 
with Senator John M. Palmer in 1896. 



SIMON KENTON, one of the famous pio- 
neers and scouts whose names fill the 
pages of the early history of our country, 
was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, 
Aprils, 1755. In consequence of an affray, 
at the age of eighteen, young Kenton went 
to Kentucky, then the "Dark and Bloody 
Ground," and became associated with Dan- 
iel Boone and other pioneers of that region. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



189 



hor a short time he acted as a scout and 
spy for Lord Dunmore, the British governor 
of Virginia, but afterward taking the side 
of the strugghng colonists, participated in 
the war for independence west of the Alle- 
ghanies. In 1784 he returned to Virginia, 
but did not reiiiiiin there long, going back 
with his family to Kentucky. From 
that time until 1793 he participated in all 
the combats and battles of that time, and 
until "Mad Anthony" Wayne swept the 
Valley of the Ohio, and settled the suprem- 
acy of the whites in that region. Kenton 
laid claim to large tracts of land in the new 
country he had helped to open up, but 
throu;;h ignorance of law. and the growing 
value of the land, lost it all and was reduced 
10 po\(,-rty. During the war with England 
in I.- 12-15, Kenton took part in the inva- 
sion of Canada with the Kentucky troops 
and participated in the battle of the Thames. 
He finally had land granted him by the 
legislature of Kentucky, and received a pen- 
sion from the United States government. 
He died in Logan county, Ohio, April 29. 
1836. 

ELIHU BENJAMIN WASHBURNE, an 
American statesman of eminence, was 
born in Livermore, Maine, September 23, 
1816. He learned the trade of printer, but 
abandoned that calling at the age of eight- 
een and entered the Kent's Hill Academy at 
Reading, Maine, and then took up the study 
of law, reading in Hallowell, Boston, and at 
the Harvard Law School. He began prac- 
tice at Galena, Illinois, in 1840. He was 
elected to congress in 1852, and represented 
his district in that body continuously until 
March, 1869, and at the time of his retire- 
ment he had served a greater number of 
consecutive terms than any other member 
of the house. In 1873 President Grant ap- 



pointed him secretary of state, which posi- 
tion he resigned to accept that of minister 
to France. During the Franco- Prussian 
war, including the siege of Paris and the 
reign of the Commune, Mr. Washburne re- 
mained at his post, protecting the lives and 
property of his countrymen, as well as that 
of other foreign residents in Paris, while the 
ministers of all other powers abandoned 
their posts at a time when they were most 
needed. As far as possible he extended 
protection to unfortunate German residents, 
who were the particular objects of hatred of 
the populace, and his firmness and the suc- 
cess which attended his efforts won the ad- 
miration of all Europe. Mr. \\'ashburne 
died at Chicago, Illinois, October 22, 1887. 



WILLIAM CRAMP, one of the most 
e.xtensive shipbuilders of this coun- 
try, was born in Kensington, then a suburb, 
now a part of Philadelphia, in 1806. He 
received a thorough English education, and 
when he left school was associated with 
Samuel Grice, one of the most eminent 
naval architects of his day. In 1830. hav- 
ing mastered all the details of shipbuilding, 
Mr. Cramp engaged in business on his own 
account. By reason of ability and excel- 
lent work he prospered from the start, until 
now, in the hands of his sons, under the 
name of William Cramp & Sons' Ship and 
Engine Building Company, it has become the 
most complete shipbuilding plant and naval 
arsenal in the western hemisphere, and fully 
equal to any in the world. As Mr. Cramp's 
sons attained manhood they learned their 
father's profession, and were admitted to a 
partnership. In 1872 the firm was incor- 
porated under the title given above. Until 
i860 wood was used in building vessels, al- 
though pace was kept with all advances in 
the art of shipbuilding. At the opening of 



190 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



the war came an unexpected demand for 
war vessels, which they promptly met. The 
sea-going ironclad "New Ironsides" was 
built by them in 1862, followed by a num- 
ber of formidable ironclads and the cruiser 
"Chattanooga." They subsequently built 
several war vessels for the Russian and 
other governments which added to their 
reputation. When the American steamship 
line was established in 1870, the Cramps 
were commissioned to build for it four first- 
class iron steamships, the "Pennsylvania," 
"Ohio," "Indiana" and "Illinois," which 
they turned out in rapid order, some of the 
finest specimens of the naval architecture of 
their day. William Cramp remained at the 
head of the great company he had founded 
until his death, which occurred January 6, 
1879. 

Charles H. Cramp, the successor of his 
father as head of the William Cramp & 
Sons' Ship and Engine Building Company, 
was born in Philadelphia May 9, 1829, and 
received an excellent education in his native 
city, .which he sedulously sought to sup- 
plement by close study until he became 
an authority on general subjects and the 
best naval architect on the western hemis- 
phere. Many of the best vessels of our 
new navy were built by this immense con- 
cern. 

WASHINGTON ALLSTON, probably 
the greatest American painter, was 
born in South Carolina in 1779. He was 
sent to school at the age of seven years at 
Newport, Rhode Island, where he met Ed- 
ward Malbone, two years his senior, and 
who later became a pamter of note. The 
friendship that sprang up between them un- 
doubtedly influenced young Allston in the 
choice of a profession. He graduated from 
Harvard in 1800, and went to England the 



following year, after pursuing his studies for 
a year under his friend Malbone at his home 
in South Carolina. He became a student 
at the Royal Academy where the great 
American, Benjamin West, presided, and 
who became his intimate friend. Allston 
later went to Paris, and then to Italy, where 
four years were spent, mostly at Rome. In 
1809 he returned to America, but soon after 
returned to London, having married in the 
meantime a sister of Dr. Channing. In 
a short time his first great work appeared, 
"The Dead Man Restored to Life by the 
Bones of Elisha," which took the British 
Association prize and firmly established his 
reputation. Other paintings followed in 
quick succession, the greatest among which 
were "Uriel in the Center of the Sun," 
"Saint Peter Liberated by the Angel," and 
"Jacob's Dream," supplemented by many 
smaller pieces. Hard work, and grief at the 
death of his wife began to tell upon his health, 
and he left London in 18 18 for America. 
The same year he was elected an associate 
of the Royal Academy. During the next 
few years he painted "Jeremiah," "Witch 
ofEndor," and "Beatrice." In 1830 Alls- 
ton married a daughter of Judge Dana, and 
went to Cambridge, which was his home 
until his death. Here he produced the 
"Vision of the Bloody Hand," "Rosalie," 
and many less noted pieces, and had given 
one week of labor to his unfinished master- 
piece, "Belshazzar's Feast," when death 
ended his career July 9, 1843. 



JOHN ROACH, ship builder and manu- 
facturer, whose career was a marvel of 
industrial labor, and who impressed his in- 
dividuality and genius upon the times in 
which he lived more, perhaps, than any 
other manufacturer in America. He was 
born at Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ire- 



I 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRATHr. 



191 



land, December 25, 1815, the son of a 
wealthy merchant. He attended school 
until he was thirteen, when his father be- 
came financially embarrassed and failed 
and shortly after died; John determined to 
come to America and carve out a fortune 
for himself. He landed in New York at the 
age of sixteen, and soon obtained employ- 
ment at the Howell Iron Works in New Jer- 
sey, at twenty-five cents a day. He soon 
made himself a place in the world, and at 
the end of three years had saved some 
twelve hundred dollars, which he lost by 
the failure of his employer, in whose hands 
it was left. Returning to New York he 
began to learn how to make castings for 
marine engines and ship work. Having 
again accumulated one thousand dollars, in 
company with three fellow workmen, he 
purchased a small foundry in New York, 
but soon became sole proprietor. At the 
end of four years he had saved thirty thou- 
sand dollars, besides enlarging his works. 
In 1856 his works were destroyed by a 
boiler explosion, and being unable to collect 
the insurance, was left, after paying his 
debts, without a dollar. However, his 
credit and reputation for integrity was good, 
and he built the Etna Iron Works, giving it 
capacity to construct larger marine engines 
than any previously built in this country. 
Here he turned out immense engines for 
the steam ram Dunderberg, for the war ves- 
sels Winooski and Neshaning, and other 
large vessels. To accommodate his increas- 
ing business, Mr. Roach, in 1869, pur- 
chased the Morgan Iron Works, one of the 
largest in New York, and shortly after sev- 
eral others. In 1871 he bought the Ches- 
ter ship yards, which he added to largely, 
erecting a rolling mill and blast furnace, and 
providing every facility for building a ship 
out of the ore and timber. This immense 



plant covered a large area, was valued at 
several millions of dollars, and was known 
as the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding 
and Engine Works, of which Mr. Roach 
was the principal owner. He built a large 
percentage of the iron vessels now flying 
the American flag, the bulk of his business 
being for private parties. In 1875 he built 
the sectional dry docks at Pensacola. He, 
about this time, drew the attention of the 
government to the use of compound marine 
engines, and thus was the means of im- 
proving the speed and economy of the ves- 
sels of our new navy. In 1883 Mr. Roach 
commenced work on the three cruisers for 
the government, the "Chicago," "Boston" 
and "Atlanta," and the 'dispatch boat 
" Dolphin." For some cause the secretary 
of the navy refused to receive the latter and 
decided that Mr. Roach's contract would 
not hold. This embarrassed Mr. Roach, 
as a large amount of his capital was in- 
volved in these contracts, and for the pro- 
tection of bondsmen and creditors, July 18, 
1885, he made an assignment, but the 
financial trouble broke down his strong con- 
stitution, and January 10, 1887, he died. 
His son, John B. Roach, succeeded to the 
shipbuilding interests, while Stephen W. 
Roach inherited the Morgan Iron Works at 
New York. 

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, one of 
<J the two great painters who laid the 
foundation of true American art, was born 
in Boston in 1737, one year earlier than his 
great contemporary, Benjamin West. His 
education was limited to the common schools 
of that time, and his training in art he ob- 
tained by his own observation and experi- 
ments solely. When he was about seven- 
teen years old he had mapped out his future, 
however, by choosing painting as his pro- 



192 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



fession. If he ever studied under any 
teacher in his early efforts, we have no au- 
thentic account of it, and tradition credits 
the young artist's wonderful success en- 
tirely to his own talent and untiring effort. 
It is almost incredible that at the age of 
twenty-three years his income from his 
works aggregated fifteen hundred dollars 
per annum, a very great sum in those days. 
In 1774 he went to Europe in search of ma- 
terial for study, which was so rare in his 
native land. After some time spent in Italy 
he finally took up his permanent residence 
in England. In 1783 he was made a mem- 
ber of the Royal Academy, and later his 
son had the high honor of becoming lord 
chancellor of Cngland and Lord Lyndhurst. 
Many specimens of Copley's work are to 
te found in the Memorial Hall at Harvard 
and in the Boston Museum, as well as a few 
of the works upon which he modeled his 
style. Copley was essentially a portrait 
painter, though his historical paintings at- 
tained great celebrity, his masterpiece 
being his " Death of Major Pierson," though 
that distinction has by some been given to 
his "Death of Chatham." It is said that 
he never saw a good picture until he was 
thirty-five years old, yet his portraits prior 
to that period are regarded as rare speci- 
mens. He died in 181 5. 



HENRY B. PLANT, one of the greatest 
railroad men of the country, became 
famous as president of the Plant system of 
railway and steamer lines, and also the 
Southern & Texas Express Co. He was 
born in October, 18 19, at Branford, 
Connecticut, and entered the railroad serv- 
ice in 1844, serving as express messenger 
on the Hartford & New Haven Railroad until 
i8cj, during which time he had entire 
•charge of the expr*»5» Jusiness of that road. 



He went south in 1853 and established ex- 
press lines on various southern railways, and 
in 1 86 1 organized the Southern Express 
Co., and became its president. In 1879 he 
purchased, with others, the Atlantic & Gulf 
Railroad of Georgia, and later reorganized 
the Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad, 
of which he became president. He pur- 
chased and rebuilt, in 1880, the Savannah 
& Charleston Railroad, now Charleston & 
Savannah. Not long after this he organ- 
ized the Plant Investment Co., to control 
these railroads and advance their interests 
generally, and later established a steamboat 
line on the St. John's river, in Florida. 
From 1853 until i860 he was general 
superintendent of the southern division of 
the Adams Express Co., and in 1867 be- 
came president of the Texas Express Co. 
The "Plant system" of railway, steamer 
and steamship lines is one of the greatest 
business corporations of the southern states. 



WADE HAMPTON, a noted Confeder- 
ate officer, was born at Columbia, 
South Carolina, in 1818. He graduated 
from the South Carolina College, took an 
active part in politics, and was twice elected 
to the legislature of his state. In 1861 he 
joined the Confederate army, and command- 
ed the " Hampton Legion " at the first bat- 
tle of Bull Run, in July, 1861. He did 
meritorious service, was wounded, and pro- 
moted to brigadier-general. He command- 
ed a brigade at Seven Pines, in 1862, and 
was again wounded. He was engaged in 
the battle of Antietam in September of the 
same year, and participated in the raid into 
Pennsylvania in October. In 1863 he was 
with Lee at Gettysburg, where he was 
wounded for the third time. He was pro- 
moted to the rank of lieutenant-general, and 
commanded a troop of cavalry in Lee's 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



193 



army during 1864, and was in numerous en- 
gagements. In 1865 he was in South Car- 
olina, and commanded the cavalry rear 
guard of the Confederate army in its stub- 
born retreat before General Sherman on his 
advance toward Richmond. 

After the war Hampton took an active 
part in politics, and was a prominent figure 
at the Democratic national convention in 
1868, which nominated Seymour and Blair 
for president and vice-president. He was 
governor of South Carolina, and took his 
seat in the United States senate in 1879, 
where he became a conspicuous figure in 
national affairs. 



NIKOLA TESLA, one of the most cele- 
brated electricians America has known, 
was born in 1857, at Smiljau, Lika, Servia. 
He descended from an old and representative 
family of that country. His father was a 
a minister of the Greek church, of high rank, 
while his mother was a woman of remarka- 
ble skill in the construction of looms, churns 
and the machinery required in a rural home. 
Nikola received early education in the 
public schools of Gospich, when he was 
sent to the higher "Real Schule" at Karl- 
stadt, where, after a three years' course, 
he graduated in 1873. He devoted him- 
self to experiments in electricity and 
magnetism, to the chagrin of his father, 
who had destined him for the ministry, 
but giving way to the boy's evident genius 
he was allowed to continue his studies in 
the polytechnic school at Gratz. He in- 
herited a wonderful intuition which enabled 
him to see through the intricacies of ma- 
chinery, and despite his instructor's demon- 
stration that a dynamo could not be oper- 
ated without commutators or brushes, 
began experiments which finally resulted in 
his rotating field motors. After the study 



of languages at Prague and Buda-Pesth, he 
became associated with M. Puskas, who 
had introduced the telephone into Hungary. 
He invented several improvements, but 
being unable to reap the necessary benefit 
from them, he, in search of a wider field, 
went to Paris, where he found employment 
with one of the electric lighting companies 
as electrical engineer. Soon he set his face 
westward, and coming to the United States 
for a time found congenial employment whh 
Thomas A. Edison. Finding it impossible, 
overshadowed as he was, to carry out his 
own ideas he left the Edison works to join 
a company formed to place his own inven- 
tions on the market. He perfected his 
rotary field principle, adapting it to circuits 
then in operation. It is said of him that 
some of his proved theories will change the 
entire electrical science. It would, in an 
article of this length, be impossible to ex- 
plain all that Tesla accomplished for the 
practical side of electrical engineering. 
His discoveries formed the basis of the at- 
tempt to utilize the water power of Niagara 
Falls. His work ranges far beyond the 
vast department of polyphase currents and 
high potential lighting and includes many 
inventions in arc lighting, transformers, 
pyro and thermo-magnetic motors, new 
forms of incandescent lamps, unipolar dyna- 
mos and many others. 



CHARLES B. LEWIS won fame as an 
American humorist under the name of 
"M. Quad." It is said he owes his 
celebrity originally to the fact that he was 
once mixed up in a boiler explosion on the 
Ohio river, and the impressions he received 
from the event he set up from his case when 
he was in the composing room of an ob- 
scure Michigan paper. His style possesses a 
peculiar quaintness, and there runs through 



194 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



it a vein of philosophy. Mr. Lewis was 
born in 1844, near a town called Liverpool, 
Ohio. He was, however, raised in Lansing. 
Michigan, where he spent a year in an agri- 
cultural college, going from there to the 
composing room of the "Lansing Demo- 
crat." At the outbreak of the war he en- 
listed in the service, remained during the 
entire war, and then returned to Lansing. 
The explosion of the boiler that "blew him 
into fame," took place two years later, while 
he was on his way south. When he re- 
covered physically, he brought suit for dam- 
ages against the steamboat company, which 
he gained, and was awarded a verdict of 
twelve thousand dollars for injuries re- 
ceived. It was while he was employed by 
the "Jacksonian" of Pontiac, Mich., that he 
set up his account of how he felt while being 
blown up. He says that he signed it "M 
Quad," because "a bourgeoise em quad is 
useless except in its own line — it won't 
justify with any other type." Soon after, 
because of the celebrity he attained by this 
screed, Mr. Lewis secured a place on the 
staff of the " Detroit Free Press," and made 
for that paper a wide reputation. His 
sketches of the "Lime Kiln Club" and 
" Brudder Gardner " are perhaps the best 
known of his humorous writings. 



HIRAM S. MAXIM, the famous inventor, 
was born in Sangersville, Maine, 
February 5, 1840, the son of Isaac W. 
and Harriet B. Maxim. The town of his 
birth was but a small place, in the 
woods, on the confines of civilization, 
and the family endured many hardships. 
They were without means and entirely 
dependent on themselves to make out of 
raw materials all they needed. The mother 
was an expert spinner, weaver, dyer and 
seamstress and the father a trapper, tanner. 



miller, blacksmith, carpenter, mason and 
farmer. Amid such surroundings young 
Maxim gave early promise of remarkable 
aptitude. With the universal Yankee jack- 
knife the products of his skill excited the 
wonder and interest of the locality. His 
parents did not encourage his latent genius 
but apprenticed him to a coach builder. 
Four years he labored at this uncongenial 
trade but at the end of that time he forsook 
it and entered a machine shop at Fitchburg, 
Massachusetts. Soon mastering the details 
of that business and that of mechanical 
drawing, he went to Boston as the foreman 
of the philosophical instrument manufactory. 
From thence he went to New York and with 
the Novelty Iron Works Shipbuilding Co. 
he gained experience in those trades. His 
inventions up to this time consisted of 
improvements in steam engines, and an 
automatic gas machine, which came into 
general use. In 1877 he turned his attention 
to electricity, and in 1878 produced an 
incandescent lamp, that would burn i.ooo 
hours. He was the first to design a process 
for flashing electric carbons, and the first 
to "Standardize" carbons for electric light- 
ing. In 1880 he visited Europe and exhibit- 
ing, at the Paris Exposition of 1881, a self- 
regulating machine, was decorated with the 
Legion of Honor. In 18S3 he returned to 
London as the European representative of the 
United States Electric Light Co. An incident 
of his boyhood, in which the recoil of a rifle 
was noticed by him, and the apparent loss 
of power shown, in 188 1-2 prompted the 
invention of a gun which utilizes the recoil to 
automatically load and fire seven hundred 
and seventy shots per minute. The Maxim- 
Nordenfelt Gun Co., with a capital of nine 
million dollars, grew from this. In 1883 he 
patented his electric training gear for large 
guns. And later turned his attention to fly- 



1 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



195 



ing machines, which he claimed were not an 
impossibility. He took out over one hundred 
patents for smokeless gunpowder, and for pe- 
troleum and other motors and autocycles. 



JOHN DAVISON ROCKEFELLER, 
one of Am.erica's very greatest financiers 
and philanthropists, was born in Richford, 
Tioga county, New York, July 8, 1839. He 
received a common-school education in his 
native place, and in 1853, when his parents 
removed to Cleveland, Ohio, he entered the 
high school of that city. After a two-years' 
course of diligent work, he entered the com- 
mission and forwarding house of Hewitt & 
Tuttle, of Cleveland, remaining with the 
firm some years, and then began business 
for himself, forming a partnership with 
Morris B. Clark. Mr. Rockefeller was then 
but nineteen years of age, and during the 
year i860, in connection with others, they 
started the oil refining business, under the 
firm name of Andrews, Clark & Co. Mr. 
Rockefeller and Mr. Andrews purchased the 
interest of their associates, and, after taking 
William Rockefeller into the firm, established 
offices in Cleveland under the name of 
William Rockefeller & Co. Shortly after 
this the house of Rockefeller & Co. was es- 
tablished in New York for the purpose of 
finding a market for their products, .and two 
years later all the refining companies were 
consolidated under the firm name of Rocke- 
feller, Andrews & Flagler. This firm was 
succeeded in 1870 by the Standard Oil 
Company of Ohio, said to be the most 
gigantic business corporation of modern 
times. John D. Rockefeller's fortune has 
been variously estimated at from one hun- 
dred million to two hundred million dollars. 
Mr. Rockefeller's philanthropy mani- 
fested itself principally through the American i 
Baptist Educational Society. He donated 



the building for the Spelman Institute at 
Atlanta, Georgia, a school for the instruction 
of negroes. His other gifts were to the 
University of Rochester, Cook Academy, 
Peddie Institute, and Vassar College, be- 
sides smaller gifts to many institutions 
throughout the country. His princely do- 
nations, however, were to the University of 
Chicago. His first gift to this institution 
was a conditional of?er of six hundred thou- 
sand dollars in 1889, and when this amount 
was paid he added one million more. Dur- 
ing 1892 he made it two gifts of one million 
each, and all told, his donations to this one 
institution aggregated between seven and 
eight millions of dollars. 



JOHN M. PALMER.— For over a third 
of a century this gentleman occupied a 
prominent place in the political world, both 
in the state of Illinois and on the broader 
platform of national issues. 

Mr. Palmer was born at Eagle Creek, 
Scott county, Kentucky, September 13, 
18 1 7. The family subsequently removed 
to Christian county, in the same state, where 
he acquired a common-school education, and 
made his home until 1831. His father was 
opposed to slavery, and in the latter year 
removed to Illinois and settled near Alton. 
In 1834 John entered Alton College, or- 
ganized on the manual-labor plan, but his 
funds failing, abandoned it and entered a 
cooper shop. He subsequently was en- 
gaged in peddling, and teaching a district 
school near Canton. In 1838 he began the 
study of law, and the following year re- 
moved toCarlinville, where, in December of 
that year, he was admitted to the bar. He 
was shortly after defeated for county clerk. 
In 1843 he was elected probate judge. In 
the constitutional convention of 1847, Mr. 
Palmer was a delegate, and from 1849 to 



196 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



1851 he was county judge. In 1852 he be- 
came a member of the state senate, but not 
being with his party on the slavery question 
he resigned that office in 1854. In 1856 
Mr. Palmer was chairman of the first Re- 
pubHcan state convention held in Illinois, 
and the same year was a delegate to the 
national convention. In i860 he was an 
elector on the Lincoln ticket, and on the 
breaking out of the war entered the service 
as colonel of the Fourteenth Illinois Infan- 
try, but was shortly after brevetted brigadier- 
general. In August, 1862, he organized 
the One Hundred and Twenty-second Illi- 
nois Infantry, but in September he was 
placed in command of the first division of 
the Army of the Mississippi, afterward was 
promoted to the rank of major-general. In 
18O5 he was assigned to the military ad- 
ministration in Kentucky. In 1867 General 
Pfllmer was elected governor of Illinois and 
s-^rved four years. In 1872 he went with 
the Liberal Republicans, who supported 
Horace Greeley, after which time he was 
identified with the Democratic party. In 
1890 he was elected United States senator 
from Illinois, and served as such for si.x 
years. In 1896, on the adoption of the sil- 
ver plank in the platform of the Democratic 
part}', General Palmer consented to lead, 
as presidential candidate, the National Dem- 
oc --ats, or Gold Democracy. 



WILLIAM H. BEARD, the humorist 
among American painters, was born 
at Painesville, Ohio, in 1821. His father, 
James H. Beard, was also a painter of na- 
tional reputation. William H. Beard be- 
gan his career as a traveling portrait 
painter. He pursued his studies in New 
York, and later removed to Buffalo, where 
he achieved reputation. He then went to 



Italy and after a short stay returned to New 
York and opened a studio. One of his 
earliest paintings was a small picture called 
"Cat and Kittens," which was placed in 
the National Academy on e,\hibition. Among 
his best productions are "Raining Cats and 
Dogs," "The Dance of Silenus," "Bears 
on a Bender," "Bulls and Bears," " Whoo!" 
" Grimalkin's Dream," " Little Red Riding 
Hood," "The Guardian of the Flag." His 
animal pictures convey the most ludicrous 
and satirical ideas, and the intelligent, 
human expression in their faces is most 
comical. Some artists and critics have re- 
fused to give Mr. Beard a place among the 
first circles in art, solely on account of the 
class of subjects he has chosen. 



WW. CORCORAN, the noted philan- 
throphist, was born at Georgetown, 
District of Columbia, December 27, 1798. 
At the age of twenty-five he entered the 
banking business in Washington, and in 
time became very wealthy. He was 
noted for his magnificent donations to char- 
ity. Oak Hill cemetery was donated to 
Georgetown in 1847, and ten years later the 
Corcoran Art Gallery, Temple of Art, was 
presented to the city of Washington. The 
uncompleted building was utilized by the 
government as quartermaster's headquar- 
ters during the war. The building was 
completed after the war at a cost of a mil- 
lion and a half dollars, all the gift of Mr. 
Corcoran. The Louise Home for Women 
is another noble charity to his credit. Its 
object is the care of women of gentle breed- 
ing who in declining years are without 
means of support. In addition to this he 
gave liberally to many worthy institutions 
of learning and charity. He died at Wash- 
ington February 24, 1888. 



COMPENDIUM OF lUOGRAPIir. 



197 



ALBERT BIERSTADT, the noted paint- 
er oi American landscape, was born in 
Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1829, and was 
brought to America by his parents at the 
age of two years. He received his early 
education here, but returned to Dusseldorf 
to study painting, and also went to Rome. 
On his return to America he accompanied 
Lander's expedition across the continent, in 
1858, and soon after produced his most 
popular work, "The Rocky Mountains — 
Lander's Peak. " Its boldness and grandeur 
were so unusual that it made him famous. 
The picture sold for twenty-five thousand 
dollars. In 1867 Mr. Bierstadt went to 
Europe, with a government commission, 
and gathered materials for his great historic- 
al work, "Discovery of the North River 
by Hendrik Hudson." Others of his great 
works were "Storm in the Rocky Mount- 
ains," "Valley of the Yosemite," "North 
Fork of the Platte," "Diamond Pool," 
"Mount Hood," "Mount Rosalie," and 
"The Sierra Nevada Mountains." His 
"Estes Park' sold for fifteen thousand 
dollars, and "Mount Rosalie" brought 
thirty-five thousand dollars. His smaller 
Rocky mountain scenes, however, are vast- 
ly superior to his larger works in execution 
and coloring. 

ADDISON CAMMACK, a famous mill- 
ionaire Wall street speculator, was 
born in Kentucky. When sixteen years old 
he ran away from home and went to New 
Orleans, where he went to work in a ship- 
ping house. He outlived and outworked 
all the partners, and became the head of the 
firm before the opening of the war. At 
that time he ntted out small vessels and en- 
gaged in running the blockade of southern 
ports and carrying ammunition, merchan- 
dise, etc., to the southern people. This 



made him a fortune. At the close of the 
war he quit business and went to New 
York. For two years he did not enter any 
active business, but seemed to be simply an 
on-looker in the great speculative center of 
America. He was observing keenly the 
methods and financial machinery, however, 
and when, in 1867, he formed a partnership 
with the popular Charles J. Osborne, the 
firm began to prosper. He never had an 
office on the street, but wandered into the 
various brokers' offices and placed his orders 
as he saw fit. In 1873 he dissolved his 
partnership with Osborne and operated 
alone. He joined a band of speculative 
conspirators known as the "Twenty-third 
party," and was the ruling spirit in that or- 
ganization for the control of the stock mar- 
ket. He was alwaj'S on the ' ' bear " side and 
the only serious obstacle he ever encoun- 
tered was the persistent boom in industrial 
stocks, particularly sugar, engineered by 
James R. Keane. Mr. Cammack fought 
Keane for two years, and during the time is 
said to have lost no less than two million 
dollars before he abandoned the fight. 



WALT. WHITMAN.— Foremost among 
the lesser poets of the latter part of the 
nineteenth century, the gentleman whose 
name adorns the head of this article takes 
a conspicuous place. 

Whitman was born at West Hills, Long 
Island, New York, May 13, 1809. In the 
schools of I3rooklyn he laid the foundation 
of his education, and early in life learned the 
printer's trade. For a time he taught coun- 
try schools in his native state. In 1846-7 
he was editor of the "Brooklyn Eagle," 
but in 1848-9 was on the editorial staff of 
the "Crescent," of New Orleans. He 
made an extended tour throughout the 
United States and Canada, and returned to 



i98 



COMPENDIUM GF BIOGRAPIir. 



Brooklyn, where, in 1850, he published the 
"Freeman. " For some years succeeding 
*Jiis he was engaged as carpenter and builder. 
During the Civil war, Whitman acted as 
a volunteer nurse in the hospitals at 
Washington and vicinity and from the close 
of hostilities until 1873 he was employed 
in various clerkships in the government 
offices in the nation's capital. In the latter 
year he was stricken with paralysis as a 
result of his labors in the hospital, it is 
said, and being partially disabled lived for 
many years at Camden, New Jersey. 

The first edition of the work which was 
to bring him fame, "Leaves of Grass," was 
published in 1855 and was but a small 
volume of about ninety-four pages. Seven 
or eight editions of "Leaves of Grass" have 
been issued, each enlarged and enriched with 
new poems. "Drum Taps," at first a 
separate publication, has been incorporated 
with the others. This volume and one 
prose writing entitled " Specimen Days and 
Collect," constituted his whole work. 

Walt. Whitman died at Camden, New 
Jersey, March 26, 1892. 



HENRY DUPONT, who became cele- 
brated as America's greatest manufact- 
urer of gunpowder, was a native of Dela- 
ware, born August 8, 181 2. He received 
his education in its higher branches at the 
United States Military Academy at West 
Point, from which he graduated and entered 
the army as second lieutenant of artillery in 
1833. In 1834 he resigned and became 
proprietor of the extensive gunpowder 
manufacturing plant that bears his name, 
near Wilmington, Delaware. His large 
business interests interfered with his tak- 
ing any active participation in political 
life, although for many years he served 
as adjutant-general of his native state, and 



during the war as major-general command- 
ing the Home Guards. He died August 8, 
1889. His son, Henry A. Dupont, also was 
a native of Delaware, and was born July 30, 
1838. After graduating from West Point 
in 1 86 1, he entered the army as second 
lieutenant of engineers. Shortly after he 
was transferred to the Fifth Artillery as first 
lieutenant. He was promoted to the rank 
of captain in 1864, serving in camp and 
garrison most of the time. He was in com- 
mand of a battery in the campaign of 
1863-4. As chief of artillery of the army of 
West Virginia, he figured until the close of 
the war, being in the battles of Opequan, 
Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, besides 
many minor engagements. He afterward 
acted as instructor in the artillery school at 
Fortress Monroe, and on special duty at 
West Point. He resigned from the army 
March i, 1875. 



WILLIAM DEERING, one of the fa- 
mous manufacturers of America, and 
also a philanthropist and patron of educa- 
tion, was born in Maine in 1826. His an- 
cestors were English, having settled in New 
England in 1634. Early in life it was Will- 
iam's intention to become a physician, and 
after completing his common-school educa- 
tion, when about eighteen years of age, he 
began an apprenticeship with a physician. 
A short time later, however, at the request 
of his father, he took charge of his father's 
business interests, which included a woolen 
mill, retail store and grist mill, after which 
he became agent for a dry goods commission 
house in Portland, where he was married. 
Later he became partner in the firm, and 
removed to New York. The business pros- 
pered, and after a number of years, on ac- 
count of fiiiling health, Mr. Deering sold his 
interest to his partner, a Mr. Milner. The 



COMPENDIUM OF BlOGRArHT. 



199 



business has since made Mr. Milner a mill- 
ionaire many times over. A few years 
later Mr. Deering located in Chicago. His 
beginning in the manufacture of reapers, 
which has since made his name famous, 
was somewhat of an accident. He had 
loaned money to a man in that business, 
and in 1878 was compelled to buy out the 
business to protect his interests. The busi- 
ness developed rapidly and grew to immense 
proportions. The factories now cover sixty- 
two acres of ground and employ many thou- 
sands of men. . 



T OHN McAllister schofield, an 

<J American general, was born in Chautau- 
qua county. New York, September 29, 1831. 
He graduated at West Point in 1853, and 
was for five years assistant professor of nat- 
ural philosophy in that institution. In 1861 
he entered the volunteer service as major of 
the First Missouri Volunteers, and was ap- 
pointed chief of staff by General Lyon, under 
whom he fought at the battle of Wilson's 
Creek. In November, 1861, he was ap- 
pointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and 
was placed in command of the Missouri 
militia until November, 1862, and of the 
army of the frontier from that time until 
1863. In 1862 he was made major-general 
of volunteers, and was placed in command of 
the Department of the Missouri, and in 1864 
of the Department of the Ohio. During the 
campaign through Georgia General Scho- 
field was in command of the Twenty-third 
Army Corps, and was engaged in most of the 
fighting of that famous campaign. Novem- 
ber 30, 1864, he defeated Hood's army at 
Franklin, Tennessee, and then joined Gen- 
eral Thomas at Nashville. He took part in 
the battle of Nashville, where Hood's army 
was destroyed. In January, 1865, he led 
his corps into North Carolina, captured 



Wilmington, fought the battle of Kingston, 
and joined General Sherman at Goldsboro 
March 22, 1865. He e.xecuted the details 
of the capitulation of General Johnston to 
Sherman, which practically closed the war. 
In June, 1868, General Schofield suc- 
ceeded Edwin M. Stanton as secretary of 
war, but was the next year appointed major- 
general of the United States army, and order- 
"ed to the Department of the Missouri. From 
1870 to 1876 he was in command of the De- 
partment of the Pacific; from 1876 to 1881 
superintendent of the West Point Military 
Academy; in 1883 he was in charge of the 
Department of the Missouri, and in 1 886 of 
the division of the Atlantic. In 1888 he 
became general-in-chief of the United States 
army, and in February, 1895, was appoint- 
ed lieutenant-general by President Cleve- 
land, that rank having been revived by con- 
gress. In September, 1895, he was retired 
from active service. 



LEWIS WALLACE, an American gen- 
eral and famous author, was born ii\ 
Brookville, Indiana, April lo, 1827. He 
served in the Mexican war as first lieutenant 
of a company of Indiana Volunteers. After 
his return from Mexico he was admitted to 
the bar, and practiced law in Covington and 
Crawfordsville, Indiana, until 1861. At the 
opening of the war he was appointed ad- 
jutant-general of Indiana, and soon after be- 
came colonel of the Eleventh Indiana Vol- 
unteers. He defeated a force of Confeder- 
ates at Romney, West Virginia, and was 
made brigadier-general in September, 1861. 
At the capture of Fort Donelson in 1862 he 
commanded a division, and was engaged in 
the second day's fight at Shiloh. In 1863 
his defenses about Cincinnati saved that city 
from capture by Kirby Smith. At Monoc- 
acy in July, 1864, he was defeated, but 



200 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



his resistance delayed the advance of Gen- 
eral Early and thus saved Washington from 
capture. 

General Wallace was a member of the 
court that tried the assassins of President 
Lincoln, and also of that before whom Cap- 
tain Henry Wirtz, who had charge of the 
Andersonville prison, was tried. In 1881 
General Wallace was sent as minister to" 
Turkey. When not in official service he 
devoted much of his time to literature. 
Among his better known works are his 
"Fair God," "Ben Hur," "Prince of 
India." and a " Life of Benjamin Harrison." 



THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD, an Ameri- 
can statesman and diplomat, was born 
at Wilmington, Delaware, October 29, 1828. 
He obtained his education at an Episcopal 
academy at Flushing, Long Island, and 
after a short service in a mercantile house in 
New York, he returned to Wilmington and 
entered his father's law office to prepare 
himself for the practice of that profession. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1851. He 
was appointed to the office of United States 
district attorney for the state of Delaware, 
serving one year. In 1 869 he was elected to 
the United States senate, and continuously 
represented his state in that body until 1885, 
and in 1881, when Chester A. Arthur entered 
the presidential chair, Mr. Bayard was 
chosen president pro tempore of the senate. 
He had also served on the famous electoral 
commission that decided the Hayes-Tilden 
contest in 1876-7. In 1885 President Cleve- 
land appointed Mr. Bayard secretary of 
state. At the beginning of Cleveland's sec- 
ond term, in 1893, Mr. Bayard was selected 
for the post of ambassador at the court of 
St. James, London, and was the first to hold 
that rank in American diplomacy, serving 
until the beginning of the McKinley admin- 



istration. The questions for adjustment at 
that time between the two governments 
were the Behring Sea controversy and the 
Venezuelan boundary question. He was 
very popular in England because of his 
tariff views, and because of his criticism of 
the protective policy of the United States 
in his public speeches delivered in London, 
Edinburgh and other places, he received, in 
March, 1896, a vote of censure in the lower 
house of congress. 



JOHN WORK GARRETT, for so many 
years at the head of the great Baltimore 
& Ohio railroad system, was born in Balti- 
more, Maryland, July 31, 1820. His father, 
Robert Garrett, an enterprising merchant, 
had amassed a large fortune from a small 
beginning. The son entered Lafayette Col- 
lege in 1834, but left the following year and 
entered his father's counting room, and in 
1839 became a partner. John W. Gar- 
rett took a great interest in the develop- 
ment of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He 
was elected one of the directors in 1857, 
and was its president from 1858 until his 
death. When he took charge of the road 
it was in an embarrassed condition, but 
within a year, for the first time in its exist- 
ence, it paid a dividend, the increase in its 
net gains being $725,385. After the war, 
during which the road suffered much damage 
from the Confederates, numerous branches 
and connecting roads werebuilt of acquired, 
until it reached colossal proportions. Mr. 
Garrett was also active in securing a regular 
line of steamers between Baltimore and 
Bremen, and between the same port and 
Liverpool. He was one of the most active 
trustees of Johns Hopkins University, and a 
liberal contributor to the Young Men's 
Christian Association of Baltimore. He 
died September 26, 1884. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



201 



Robert Garrett, the son of John W. 
Garrett, was born in Baltimore April 9, 
1847, '^nd graduated from Princeton in 1867. 
He received a business education in the 
banking house of his father, and in 1871 
became president of the Valley Railroad of 
Virginia. He was made third vice-presi- 
dent of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 
1879, and first vice-president in 1881. He 
succeeded his father as president in 1884. 
Robert Garrett died July 29, 1896. 



CARLSCHURZ, a noted German-Ameri- 
can statesman, was born in Liblar, Prus- 
sia, March 2, 1829. He studied at the Uni- 
versity of Bonn, and in 1849 was engaged in 
an attempt to excite an insurrection at that 
place. After the surrender of Rastadt by 
the revolutionists, in the defense of which 
Schurz took part, he decided to emigrate to 
America. He resided in Philadelphia three 
years, and then settled in Watertown, Wis- 
consin, and in 1859 removed to Milwaukee, 
where he practiced law. On the organiza- 
tion of the Republican party he became a 
leader of the German element and entered 
the campaign for Lincoln in 1S60. He was 
appointed minister to Spain in 1861, but re- 
signed in December of that year to enter 
the army. He was appointed brigadier- 
general in 1862, and participated in the 
second battle of Bull Run, and also at 
Chancellorsville. At Gettysburg he had 
temporary command of the Eleventh Army 
Corps, and also took part in the battle of 
Chattanooga. 

After the war he located at St. Louis, 
and in 1869 was elected United States sena- 
tor from Missouri. He supported Horace 
Greeley for the presidency in 1872, and in 
the campaign of 1876, having removed to 
New York, he supported Hayes and the Re- 
publican ticket, and was appointed secre- 



tary of the interior in 1877. In 1881 he 
became editor of the "New York Evening 
Post," and in 1884 was prominent in his 
opposition to James G. Blaine, and became 
a leader of the "Mugwumps," thus assist- 
ing in the election of Cleveland. In the 
presidential campaign of 1896 his forcible 
speeches in the interest of sound money 
wielded an immense influence. Mr. Schurz 
wrote a " Life of Henry Clay," said to be 
the best biography ever published of that 
eminent statesman. 



GEORGE F. EDMUNDS, an American 
statesman of national reputation, was 
born in Richmond, Vermont, February i, 
1828. His education was obtained in the 
public schools and from the instructions of 
a private tutor. He was admitted to the 
bar, practiced law, and served in the state 
legislature from 1854 to 1859, during three 
years of that time being speaker of the lower 
house. He was elected to the state senate 
and acted as president pro tempore of that 
body in 1861 and 1862. He became promi- 
nent for his activity in the impeachment 
proceedings against President Johnson, and 
was appointed to the United States senate 
to fill out the unexpired term of Solomon 
Foot, entering that body in 1866. He was 
re-elected to the senate four times, and 
served on the electoral commission in 1877. 
He became president pro tempore of the 
senate after the death of President Garfield, 
and was the author of the bill which put an 
end to the practice of polygamy in the ter- 
ritory of Utah. In November, 1891. owing 
to impaired health, he retired from the sen- 
ate and again resumed the practice of law. 



LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR, a promineni 
political leader, statesman and jurist, 
was born in Putnam county, Georgia, Sep- 



202 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



temberij, 1825. He graduated from Emory 
College in 1845, studied law at Macon under 
Hon. A. H. Chappell, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1847. He moved to Oxford, 
Mississippi, in 1849, and was elected to a 
professorship in the State University. He 
resigned the next year and returned to Cov- 
ington, Georgia, and resumed the practice 
of law. In 1853 he was elected to the 
Georgia Legislature, and in 1854 he removed 
to his plantation in Lafayette county, Mis- 
sissippi, and was elected to represent his 
district in the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth 
congresses. He resigned in i860, and was 
sent as a delegate to the secession conven- 
tion of the state. He entered the Confed- 
erate service in 1861 as lieutenant-colonel 
of the Nineteenth Regiment, and was soon 
after made colonel. In 1863 President 
Davis appointed him to an important diplo- 
matic mission to Russia. In 1866 he was 
elected professor of political economy and 
social science in the State University, and 
was soon afterward transferred to the pro- 
fessorship of the law department. He rep- 
resented his district in the forty-third and 
forty-fourth congresses, and was elected 
United States senator from Mississippi in 
1877, and re-elected in 1882. In 1885, be- 
fore the expiration of his term, he was 
appointed by President Cleveland as secre- 
tary of the interior, which position he held 
until his appointment as associate justice of 
the United States supreme court, in 1888, 
in which capacity he served until his death, 
January 23, 1894. 



BEXJ.AMIN PENHALLOW SHILLA- 
BER won fame in the world of 
humorists under the name of "Mrs. Parting- 
ton." He was born in 1841 at Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, and started out in life as a 
printer. Mr. Shillaber went to Dover, 



where he secured employment in a printing 
office, and from there he went to Demerara, 
Guiana, where he was employed as a com- 
positor in 1835-37. In 1840 he became 
connected with the "Boston Post," and 
acquired quite a reputation as a humorist 
by his "Sayings of Mrs. Partington." He 
remained as editor of the paper until 1850, 
when he printed and edited a paper of his 
own called the "Pathfinder," which he con- 
tinued until 1852. Mr. Shillaber be- 
came editor and proprietor of the "Carpet 
Bag," which he conducted during 1850-52, 
and then returned to the "Boston Post," 
with which he was connected until 1856. 
During the same time he was one of the 
editors of the "Saturday Evening Gazette," 
and continued in this line after he severed 
his connection with the "Post," for ten 
years. After 1866 Mr. Shillaber wrote for 
various newspapers and periodicals, and 
during his life published the following 
books; "Rhymes with Reason and Without," 
"Poems," "Life and Sayings of Mrs. Part- 
ington," "Knitting Work," and others. 
His death occurred at Chelsea, Massachu- 
setts, November 25, 1890. 



EASTMAN JOHNSON stands first among 
painters of American country life. He 
was born in Lovell, Maine, in 1824, and be- 
gan his work in drawing at the age of eight- 
een years. His first works were portraits, 
and, as he took up his residence in Wash- 
ington, the most famous men of the nation 
were his subjects. In 1S46 he went to Bos- 
ton, and there made crayon portraits of 
Longfellow, Emerson, Sumner, Hawthorne 
and other noted men. In 1849 he went to 
Europe. He studied at Dusseldorf, Ger- 
many; spent a year at the Royal Academy, 
and thence to The Hague, where he spent 
four years, producing there his first pictures 



I 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



203 



of consequence, "The Card-Players " and 
"The Savoyard." He then went to Paris, 
but was called home, after an absence from 
America of six years. He lived some time 
in Washington, and then spent two years 
among the Indians of Lake Superior. In 
1858 he produced his famous picture, "The 
Old Kentucky Home." He took up his 
permanent residence at New York at that 
time. His " Sunday Morning in Virginia " 
is a work of equal merit. He was espe- 
cially successful in coloring, a master of 
drawing, and the expression conveys with 
precision the thought of the artist. His 
portrayal of family life and child life is un- 
equalled. Among his other great works are 
"The Confab," "Crossing a Stream,' 
"Chimney Sweep," "Old Stage Coach," 
" The New Bonnet," " The Drummer Boy," 
"Childhood of Lincoln," and a great vari- 
ety of equally familiar subjects. 



PIERCE GUSTAVE TOUTANT BEAU- 
REGARD, one of the most distin- 
guished generals in the Confederate army, 
was born near New Orleans, Louisiana, 
May 28, 181 8. He graduated .from West 
Point Military Academy in 1838, and was 
made second lieutenant of engineers. He 
was with General Scott in Mexico, and dis- 
tinguished himself at Vera Cruz, Cerro 
Gordo, and the battles near the City of 
Mexico, for which he was twice brevetted. 
After the Mexican war closed he was placed 
in charge of defenses about New Orleans, 
and in i860 was appointed superintendent 
of the United States Military Academy at 
West Point. He held this position but a 
few months, when he resigned February 20, 
1861, and accepted a commission of briga- 
dier-general in the Confederate army. He 
directed the attack on Fort Sumter, the 

£rst engagement of the Civil war. He was 

12 



in command of the Confederates at the first 
battle of Bull Run, and for this victory was 
made general. In 1862 he was placed in 
command of the Army of the Mississippi, 
and planned the attack upon General Grant 
at Shiloh, and upon the death of General 
Johnston he took command of the army 
and was only defeated by the timely arrival 
of General Buell with reinforcements. He 
commanded at Charleston and successfully 
defended that city against the combined at- 
tack by land and sea in 1863. In 1864 he 
was in command in Virginia, defeating Gen- 
eral Butler, and resisting Grant's attack 
upon Petersburg until reinforced from Rich- 
mond. During the long siege which fol- 
lowed he was sent to clieck General Sher- 
man's march to the sea, and was with Gen- 
eral Joseph E. Johnston when that general 
surrendered in 1865. After the close of the 
war he was largely interested in railroad 
management. In 1866 he was offered chief 
command of the Army of Roumania, and in 
1869, that of the Army of Egypt. He de- 
clined these offers. His death occurred 
February 20, 1893. 



HENRY GEORGE, one of America's 
most celebrated political economists, 
was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
September 2, 1839. He received a common- 
school education and entered the high 
school in 1853, and then went into a mer- 
cantile office. He made several voyages on 
the sea, and settled in California in 185S. 
He then worked at the printer's trade for a 
number of years, which he left to follow the 
editorial profession. He edited in succession 
several daily newspapers, and attracted at- 
tention by a number of strong essays and 
speeches on political and social questions. 
In 1 87 I he edited a pamphlet, entitled " Oui 
Land and Policy," in which he outlined a 



204 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



theory, which has since made him so widely 
known. This was developed in " Progress 
and Poverty," a book which soon attained a 
large circulation on both sides of the Atlan- 
tic, which has been extensively translated. 
In 1880 Mr. George located in New York, 
where he made his home, though he fre- 
quent!}' addressed audiences in Great Britain, 
Ireland, Australia, and throughout the 
United States. In 1886 he was nominated 
by the labor organizations for mayor of New 
York, and made a campaign notable for its 
development of unexpectedpower. In iSS/he 
was candidate of the Union Labor party for 
secretary of state of New York. These cam- 
paigns served to formulate the idea of a single 
tax and popularize the Australian ballot sys- 
tem. Mr. George became a free trader in 
1888. and in 1892 supported the election of 
Grover Cleveland. His political and eco- 
nomic ideas, known as the "single tax," 
have a large and growing support, but are 
not confined to this country alone. He 
wrote numerous miscellaneous articles in 
support of his principles, and also published: 
"The Land Question," "Social Problems," 
"Protection or Free Trade," "The Condi- 
tion of Labor, an Open Letter to Pope Leo 
XIII.," and " Perplexed Philosopher." 



THOMAS ALEXANDER SCOTT. —This 
name is indissolubly connected with 
the history and development of the railway 
systems of the United States. Mr. Scott 
was born December 28, 1823, at London, 
Franklin county, Pennsylvania. He was first 
regularly employed by Major James Patton, 
the collector of tolls on the state road be- 
tween Philadelphia and Columbia, Penn- 
sylvania. He entered into the employ of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in i 850, 
and went through all the different branches 
of work until he had mastered all the details 



of the office work, and in 1858 he was ap- 
pointed general superintendent. Mr. Scott 
was the next year chosen vice-president of 
the road. This position at once brought 
him before the public, and the enterprise 
and ability displayed by him in its manage- 
ment marked him as a leader among the 
railroad men of the country. At the out- 
break of the rebellion in 1861, Mr. Scott 
was selected by Governor Ctirtin as a mem- 
ber of his staff, and placed in charge of the 
equipment and forwarding of the state troops 
to the seat of war. On April 27, 1861, the 
secretary of war desired to establish a new 
line of road between the national capital 
and Philadelphia, for the more expeditious 
transportation of troops. He called upon 
Mr. Scott to direct this work, and the road 
by the way of Annapolis and Perryville was 
completed in a marvelously short space of 
time. On May 3, 1861, he was commis- 
sioned colonel of volunteers, and on the 23d 
of the same month the government railroads 
and telegraph lines were placed in his charge. 
Mr. Scott was the first assistant secretary 
of war ever appointed, and he took charge 
of this new post August i, 1861. In Janu- 
ary, 1862, he was directed to organize 
transportation in the northwest, and in 
March he performed the same service on 
the western rivers. He resigned June i, 
1862, and resumed his direction of affairs on 
the Pennsylvania Railroad. Colonel Scott 
directed the policy that secured to his road 
the control of the western roads, and be- 
came the president of the new company to 
operate these lines in 1871. For one year, 
from March, 1871, he was president of the 
Union Pacific Railroad, and m 1874 he suc- 
ceeded to the presidency of the Pennsyl- 
vania Company. He projected the Texas 
Pacific Railroad and was for many years its 
president. Colonel Scott's health failed 



COMPENDlLWr OF lilOCRAPlir. 



205- 



him and he resigned the presidency of the 
roail June l, 1880, and died at his home in 
Dirbj', Pennsylvania, May 2 1, 1881. 



ROBERT TOOMBS, an American states- 
man of note, was bora in Wilkes coun- 
ty. Georgia, July 2, 1810. He attended 
the University < f Georgia, and graduated 
from Union College, Schenectady, New 
York, and then tt)ok a law course at the 
Ur.iversity of Virginia. In 1830, before he 
had attained his majority, he was admitted 
to the bar by special act of the legislature, 
and rose rapidly in his profession, attracting 
the attention of the leading statesmen and 
judges of that time. He raised a volunteer 
company for the Creek war, and served as 
captain to the close. He was elected to the 
state legislature in 1837, re-elected in 1842, 
and in 1S44 was elected to congress. He 
had been brought up as a JefTersonian 
Democrat, but voted for Harrison in 1840 
and for Clay in 1844. He made his first 
speech in congress on the Oregon question, 
and immediately took rank with the greatest 
debaters of that body. In 1853 he was 
elected to the United States senate, and 
again in 1859, but when his native state 
seceded he resigned his seat in the senate 
and was elected to the Confederate con- 
gress. It is stated on the best authority 
that had it not been for a misunderstanding 
which could not be explained till too late he 
would have been elected president of the 
Confederacy. He was appointed secretary 
of state by President Davis, but resigned 
after a few months and was commissioned 
brigadier-general in the Confederate army. 
He won distinction at the second battle of 
Bull Run and at Sharpsburg, but resigned 
his commission soon after and returned to 
Georgia. He organized the militia of 
Georgia to resist Sherman, and was made 



brigadier-general of the state troops. He 
left the country at the close of the war and 
did not return until 1867. He died Decem- 
ber 15. 1885. 

AUSTIN COKBIN, one of the greatest 
railway magnates of the United States, 
was born July 11, 1S27. at Newport, New 
Hampshire. He studied law with Chief 
Justice Gushing and Governor Ralph Met- 
calf, and later took a course in the Harvard 
Law School, where he graduated in 1849. 
He was admitted to the bar, and practiced 
law, with Governor Metcalf as his partner, 
until October 12, 185 1. Mr. Corbin then 
removed to Davenport, Iowa, where he re- 
mained until 1865. In 1854 he was a part- 
ner in the banking firm of Macklot & Cor- 
bin, and later he organized the First Na- 
tional bank of Davenport. Iowa, which 
commenced business June 29, 1863, and 
which was the first national bank op- n for 
business in the United States. Mr. Corbin 
sold out his business in the Davenport bank, 
and removed to New York in 1865 and com- 
menced business with partners under the 
style of Corbin Banking Company. Soon 
after his removal to New York he became 
interested in railroads, and became one of 
the leading railroad men of the country. 
The development of the west half of Coney 
IslcUid as a summer resort first brought him 
into general prominence. He built a rail- 
road from New York to the island, and 
built great hotels on its ocean front. He 
next turned his attention to Long Island, 
and secured all the railroads and consoli- 
dated them under one management, became 
president of the system, and under his con- 
trol Long Island became the great ocean 
suburb of New York. His latest public 
achievement was the rehabilitation of the 
Reading Railroad, of Pennsylvania, and 



206 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



during the same time he and his friends 
purchased the controlHng interest of the 
New Jersey Central Railroad. He took it 
out of the hands of the receiver, and in 
three years had it on a dividend-paying 
basis. Mr. Corbin's death occurred June 
4. 1896. 

JAMES GORDON BENNETT, Sr., 
was one of the greatest journalists of 
America in his day. He was born Septem- 
ber I, 1795, at New Mill, near Keith, Scot- 
land. At the age of fourteen he was sent 
to Aberdeen to study for the priesthood, 
but, convinced that he was mistaken in his 
vocation, he determined to emigrate. He 
landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 18 19, 
where he attempted to earn a living by 
teaching bookkeeping. Failing in this he 
went to Boston and found employment as a 
proof reader. Mr. Bennett went to New 
York about 1822 and wrote for the news- 
papers. Later on he became assistant 
editor in the office of the "Charleston 
Courier, "but returned to New York in 1824 
and endeavored to start a commercial 
school, but was unsuccessful in this, and 
again returned to newspaper work. He 
continued in newspaper work with varying 
success until, at his suggestion, the "En- 
quirer" was consolidated with another 
paper, and became the "Courier and En- 
quirer," with James Watson Webb as 
editor and Mr. Bennett for assistant. At 
this time this was the leading American 
newspaper. He, however, severed his con- 
nection with this newspaper and tried, 
without success, other ventures in the line 
of journalism until May 6, 1835, when he 
issued the first number of the "New York 
Herald." Mr. Bennett wrote the entire 
paper, and made up for lack of news by his 
own imagination. The paper became popu- 



lar, and in 1838 he engaged European jour- 
nalists as regular correspondents. In 1841 
the income derived from his paper was at 
least one hundred thousand dollars. Dur- 
ing the Civil war the " Herald " had on its 
staff sixty-three war correspondents and the 
circulation was doubled. Mr. Bennett was 
interested with John W. Mackay in that great 
enterprise which is now known as the Mac- 
kay-Bennett Cable. He had collected for use 
in his paper over fifty thousand biographies, 
sketches and all manner of information re- 
garding every well-known man, which are 
still kept in the archives of the "Herald" 
office. He died in the city of New York in 
1872, and left to his son, James Gordon, 
Jr., one of the greatest and most profitable 
journals in the United States, or even in the 
world. 

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, a 
noted American, won distinction in the 
field of literature, in which he attained a 
world-wide reputation. He was born at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 29, 1809. 
He received a collegiate education and grad- 
uated from Harvard in 1829, at the age of 
twenty, and took up the study of law and 
later studied medicine. Dr. Holmes at- 
tended several years in the hospitals of 
Europe and received his degree in 1836. 
He became professor of anatomy and phys- 
iology in Dartmouth in 1838, and re- 
mained there until 1S47, when he was 
called to the Massachusetts Medical School 
at Boston to occupy the same chair, which 
position he resigned in 1882. The first 
collected edition of his poems appeared in 
1836, and his "Phi Beta Kappa Poems," 
"Poetry." in 1836; "Terpsichore," in 1843; 
"Urania," in 1846, and "Astrsea," won for 
him many fresh laurels. His series of 
papers in the "Atlantic Monthly," were: 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



20T 



"Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," "Pro- 
fessor at the Breakfast Table," "Poet at 
the Breakfast Table," and are a series of 
masterly wit, humor and pathos. Among 
hismedical papers and addresses, are: "Cur- 
rents and Counter-currents in the Medical 
Science," and "Borderland in Some Prov- 
inces of Medical Science." Mr. Holmes 
edited quite a number of works, of which 
we quote the following: "Else Venner," 
"Songs in Many Keys," "Soundings from 
the Atlantic," "Humorous Poems," "The 
Guardian Angel," "Mechanism in Thoughts 
and Morals," "Songs of Many Seasons," 
"John L. Motley" — a memoir, "The Iron 
Gate and Other Poems," "Ralph Waldo 
Emerson," "A Moral Antipathy." Dr. 
Holmes visited England for the second time, 
and while there the degree of LL. D. 
was conferred upon him by the University 
of Edinburgh. His death occurred October 
7. 1894- 

RUFUS CHOATE, one of the most em- 
inent of America's great lawyers, was 
born October i, 1799, at Essex, Massachu- 
setts. He entered Dartmouth in 1815, 
and after taking his degree he remained as 
a teacher in the college for one year. He 
took up the study of law in Cambridge, and 
subsequently studied under the distinguished 
lawyer, Mr. Wirt, who was then United 
States attorney-general at Washington. Mr. 
Choatebegan the practice of law in Danvers, 
Massachusetts, and from there he went to 
Salem, and afterwards to Boston, Massa- 
chusetts. While living at Salem he was 
elected to congress in 1832, and later, in 
1841, he was chosen United States senator 
to succeed Daniel Webster, Mr. Webster 
having been appointed secretary of state 
under William Henry Harrison. 

After the death of Webster. Mr Choate 



was the acknowledged leader of the Massa- 
chusetts bar, and was looked upon by the 
younger members of the profession with an 
affection that almost amounted to a rever- 
ence. Mr. Choate's powers as an orator 
were of the rarest order, and his genius 
made it possible for him to enchant and in- 
terest his listeners, even while discussing the 
most ordinary theme. He was not merely 
eloquent on the subjects that were calculated 
to touch the feelings and stir the passions 
of his audience in themselves, but could at 
all times command their attention. He re- 
tired from active life in 1858, and was on 
his way to Europe, his physician having 
ordered a sea voyage for his health, but had 
only reached Halifax, Nova Scotia, when 
he died, July 13, 1858. 



D WIGHT L. MOODY, one of the most 
noted and effective pulpit orators and 
evangelists America has produced, was born 
in Northfield, Franklin county, Massachu- 
setts, February 5, 1837. He received but 
a meager education and worked on a farm 
until seventeen years of age, when he be- 
came clerk in a boot and shoe store in 
Boston. Soon after this he joined the Con- 
gregational church and went to Chicago, 
where he zealously engaged in missionary 
work among the poor classes. He met 
with great success, and in less than a year 
he built up a Sunday-school which numbered 
over one thousand children. When the 
war broke out he became connected with 
what was known as the "Christian Com- 
mission," and later became city missionary 
of the Young Men's Christian Association at 
Chicago. A church was built there for his 
converts and he became its unordained pas- 
tor. In the Chicago fire of 1871 the church 
and Mr. Moody's house and furniture, which 
had been given him, were destroyed. The 



208 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



church edifice was afterward replaced by a 
new church erected on the site of the old 
one. In 1873, accompanied by Ira D. 
Sanke)', Mr. Moody went to Europe and 
excited great religious awakenings through- 
out England, Ireland and Scotland. In 
1875 they returned to America and held 
large meetings in various cities. They 
afterward made another visit to Great 
Britain for the same purpose, meeting with 
great success, returning to the United States 
in 1 884. Mr. Moody afterward continued 
his evangelistic work, meeting everywhere 
with a warm reception and success. Mr. 
Moody produced a number of works, some 
of which had a wide circulation. 



JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN, a financier 
of world-wide reputation, and famous 
as the head of one of the largest banking 
houses in the world, was born April 17, 
1S37, at Hartford, Connecticut. He re- 
ceived his early education in the English 
high school, in Boston, and later supple- 
mented this with a course in the University 
of Gnttingen, Germany. He returned to 
the United States, in 1857, and entered the 
banking firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co., 
of New York, and, in i860, he became 
agent and attorney, in the United States, for 
George Peabody & Co., of London. He 
became the junior partner in the banking 
firm of Dabney, Morgan & Co., in 1864, 
and that of Dre.vel, Morgan & Co., in 1871. 
This house was among the chief negotiators 
of railroad bonds, and was active in the re- 
organization of the West Shore Railroad, 
and its absorption by the New York Central 
Railroad. It was conspicuous in the re- 
organization of the Philadelphia & Read- 
ing Railroad, in 1887, which a syndicate of 
capitalists, formed by Mr. Morgan, placed 
on a sound financial basis. After that time 



many other lines of railroad and gigantic 
financial enterprises were brought under Mr. 
Morgan's control, and in some respects it 
may be said he became the foremost financier 
of the century. 



THOMAS BRACKETT REED, one of 
the most eminent of American states- 
men, was born October 18, 1839, at Port- 
land, Maine, where he received his early 
education in the common schools of the 
city, and prepared himself for college. Mr. 
Reed graduated from Bowdoin College in 
i860, and won one of the highest honors of 
the college, the prize for excellence in Eng- 
lish composition. The following four years 
were spent by him in teaching and in the 
study of law. Before his admission to the 
bar, however, he was acting assistant pay- 
master in the United States navy, and 
served on the "tin-clad" Sybil, which pa- 
trolled the Tennessee, Cumberland and 
Mississippi rivers. After his discharge in 
1865, he returned to Portland, was admit- 
ted to the bar, and began the practice of his 
profession. He entered into political life, 
and in 1868 was elected to the legislature 
of Maine as a Republican, and in 1869 he 
was re-elected to the house, and in 1870 
was made state senator, from which he 
passed to attorney-general of the state. 
He retired from this office in 1873, and 
until 1877 he was solicitor for the city 
of Portland. In 1876 he was elected to 
the forty-fifth congress, which assembled 
in 1877. Mr. Reed sprung into prominence 
in that body by one of the first speeches 
which he delivered, and his long service in 
congress, coupled with his ability, gave him 
a national reputation. His influence each 
year became more strongly marked, and the 
leadership of his party was finally conceded 
to him, and in the forty-ninth and fiftieth 



I 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAP//]'. 



a^ 



congresses the complimentary nomination 
for the speakership was tendered him by the 
Republicans. That party having obtained 
the ascendency in the fifty-first congress he 
was elected speaker on the first ballot, and 
he was again chosen speaker of the fifty- 
fourth and fifth-fifth congresses. As a 
writer, Mr. Reed contributed largely to the 
magazines and periodicals, and his book 
upon parliamentary rules is generally rec- 
ognized as authority on that subject. 



CLARA BARTON is a celebrated char- 
acter among what might be termed as 
the highest grade of philanthropists Amer- 
ica has produced. She was born on a farm 
at Oxford, Massachusetts, a daughter of 
Captain Stephen Barton, and was educated 
at Clinton, New York. She engaged in 
teaching early in life, and founded a free 
school at Bordentown, the first in New Jer- 
sey. She opened with six pupils, but the 
attendance had grown to six hundred up to 
1854, when she went to Washington. She 
was appointed clerk in the patent depart- 
ment, and remained there until the out- 
break of the Civil war, when she resigned 
her position and devoted herself to the al- 
leviation of the sufferings of the soldiers, 
serving, not in the hospitals, but on the bat- 
tle field. She was present at a number of 
battles, and after the war closed she origi- 
nated, and for some time carried on at her 
own expense, the search for missing soldiers. 
She then for several years devoted her time 
to lecturing on "Incidents of the War." 
About 1868 she went to Europe for her 
health, and settled in Switzerland, but on the 
outbreak of the Franco-German war she ac- 
cepted the invitation of the grand duchess 
vif Baden to aid in the establishment of her 
hospitals, and Miss Barton afterward fol- 
lowed the German army She was deco- 



rated with the golden cross by the granc 
duke of Baden, and with the iron cross by 
the emperor of Germany. She aiso served 
for many years as president of the famouf 
Red Cross Society and attained a world- 
wide reputation. 



CARDINAL JAMES GIBBONS, one o! 
the most eminent Catholic clergymen 
in America, was born in Baltimore, Mary- 
land, July 23, 1B34. He was given a 
thorough education, graduated at St. Charle= 
College, Maryland, in 1857, and studied 
theology in St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, 
Maryland. In 1861 he became pastor of 
St. Bridget's church in Baltimore, and in 
1868 was consecrated vicar apostolic of 
North Carolina. In 1872 our subject be- 
came bishop of Richmond, Virginia, and 
five years later was made archbishop of Bal- 
timore. On the 30th of June, iSS5, he 
was admitted to the full degree of cardmai 
and primate of the American Catholic 
church. He was a fluent writer, and his 
book, "Faith of Our Fathers,' had a wide 
circulation. 

CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW.— 
This name is, without doubt, one of 
the most widely known in the United States. 
Mr. Depew was born April 23, 1834, at 
Peekskill, New York, the home of the Depew 
family for two hundred years. He attended 
the common schools of his native place, 
where he prepared himself to enter college. 
He began his collegiate course at Yale at 
the age of eighteen and graduated in 1856. 
He early took an active interest in politics 
and joined the Republican party at its for- 
mation. He then took up the stud}- of law 
and went into the office of the Hon. Will- 
iam Nelson, of Peekskill, for that purpose, 
and in 1858 he was admitted to the bar. 



210 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



He was sent as a delegate by the new party 
to the Repubhcan state convention of that 
year. He began the practice of his profes- 
sion in 1859, but though he was a good 
worker, his attention was detracted by the 
rampaign of i860, in which he took an act- 
ive part. During this campaign he gained 
his first laurels as a public speaker. Mr. 
Depew was elected assemblyman in 1862 
from a Democratic district. In 1863 he se- 
cured the nomination for secretary of state, 
and gained that post by a majority of thirty 
thousand. In 1866 he left the field of pol- 
itics and entered into the active practice 
of his law business as attorney for the 
New York & Harlem Railroad Company, 
and in 1869 when this road was consoli- 
dated with the New York Central, and 
called the New York Central & Hudson 
Kiver Railroad, he was appointed the attor- 
ney for the new road. His rise in the rail- 
road business was rapid, and ten years after 
his entrance into the Vanderbilt system as 
attorney for a single line, he was the gen- 
eral counsel for one of the largest railroad 
systems in the world. He was also a 
director in the Lake Shore & Michigan 
Southern, Michigan Central, Chicago & 
Northwestern, St. Paul & Omaha, West 
Shore, and Nickel Plate railroad companies. 
In 1874 Mr. Depew was made regent of 
the State University, and a member of the 
commission appointed to superintend the 
erection of the capitol at Albany. In 1882, 
on tiie resignation of W. H. Vanderbilt 
from the presidency of the New York Cen- 
tral and the accession to that office by 
James H. Rutter, Mr. Depew was made 
second vice-president, and held that posi- 
tion until the death of Mr. Rutter in 1885. 
In this year Mr. Depew became the e.xecu 
tive head of this great corporation. Mr. 
Depew's greatest fame grew from his ability 



and eloquence as an orator and " after-din- 
ner speaker," and it has been said by emi- 
nent critics that this country has never pro- 
duced his equal in wit, fluency and eloquence. 



PHILIP KEARNEY.— Among the most 
dashing and brilliant commanders in 
the United States service, few have outshone 
the talented ofificer whose name heads this 
sketch. He was born in New York City, 
June 2, i8rc;, and was of Irish ancestry an(3 
imbued with all the dash and bravery of the 
Celtic race. He graduated from Columbia 
College an'J studied law, out in 1837 ac- 
cepted a commission as lieutenant in the 
First United States Dragoons, of which hi? 
uncle, Stephen W. Kearney, was then colo- 
nel. He was sent by the government, 
soon after, to Europe to examine and report 
upon the tactics of the French cavalry. 
There he attended the Polytechnic School, 
at Samur, and subsequently served as a vol- 
unteer in Algiers, winning the cross of the 
Legion of Honor. He returned to the 
United States in 1840, and on the staff of 
General Scott, in the Mexican war, served 
with great gallantry. He was made a cap- 
tain of dragoons in 1846 and made major 
for services at Contreras and Cherubusco. 
In the final assault on the City of Mexico, 
at the San Antonio Gate, Kearney lost an 
arm. He subsequently served in California 
and the Pacific coast. In \%'^\ he resigned 
his commission and went to Europe, where 
he resumed his military studies. In the 
Italian war, in 1859, he served as a volun- 
teer on the staff of General Maurier, of the 
French army, and took part in the battles 
of Solferino and Magenta, and for bravery 
was, for the second time, decorated with 
the cross of the Legion of Honor. On the 
opening of the Civil war he hastened home, 
and, offering his services to the general gov- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPJir. 



211 



Rrnnient, was made brigadier-sjeneral of 
vol'jiiieers and placed in command of a bri- 
gade of New Jersey troops. In the cam- 
paign under McCleilan he commanded a di- 
vision, and at Williamsburg and Fair Oaks 
his services were valuable and brilliant, as 
well as in subsequent engagements. At 
Harrison's Landing he was made major-gen- 
eral of volunteers. In the second battle of 
Bull Run he was conspicuous, and at the 
battle of Chantilly, September i, 1862, 
while leading in advance of his troops, Gen- 
eral Kearney was shot and killed. 



RUSSELL SAGE, one of the financial 
giants of the present century and for 
more than an average generation one of the 
most conspicuous and celebrated of Ameri- 
cans, was born in a frontier hamlet in cen- 
tral New York in August, 18 16. While Rus- 
sell was still a boy an elder brother, Henry 
Risley Sage, established a small grocery 
store at Troy, New York, and here Russell 
found his first employment, as errand boy. 
He served a five-years apprenticeship, and 
then joined another brother, Elisha M. Sage, 
in a new venture in the same line, which 
proved profitable, at least for Russell, who 
soon became its sole owner. Next he 
formed the partnership of Sage & Bates, 
and greatly extended his field of operations. 
At twenty-five he had, by his own exertions, 
amassed what was, in those days, a consid- 
erable fortune, being worth about seventy- 
five thousand dollars. He had acquired an 
inlhionce in local politics, and lour years 
later his party, the Whigs, elected him to 
the aldermanic board of Troy and to the 
treasuryship of Rensselaer county. In 1 848 
he was a prominent member of the New 
York delegation to the Whig convention at 
PbilaJelphia, casting his first votes for Henry 
Clay, but joining the "stampede" which 



nominated Zachary Taylor. In 1850 the 
Whigs of Troy nominated him for congress, 
but he was not elected— a failure which he 
retrieved two years later, and in 1854 he 
was re-elected by a sweeping majority. At 
Washington he ranked high in influence and 
ability. Fame as a speaker and as a polit- 
ical leader was within his grasp, when he 
gave up public life, declined a renomination 
to congress, and went back to Troy to de- 
vote himself to his private business. Six 
years later, in 1863, he removed to New 
York and plunged into the arena of Wall 
street. A man of boundless energy and 
tireless pertinacity, with wonderful judg- 
ment of men and things, he soon took his 
place as a king in finance, and, it is said, 
during the latter part of his life he con- 
trolled more ready money than any other 
single individual on this continent. 



ROGER QUARLES MILLS, a noted 
United States senator and famous as the 
father of the "Mills tariff bill, "was born 
in Todd county, Kentucky, March 30, 1832. 
He received a liberal education in the com- 
mon schools, and removed to Palestine, 
Texas, in 1849. He took up the study of 
law, and supported himself by serving as an 
assistant in the post-office, and in the offices 
of the court clerks. In 1850 he was elected 
engrossing clerk of the Texas house of rep- 
resentatives, and in 1852 was admitted to 
the bar, while still a minor, by special act 
of the legislature. He then settled at Cor- 
sicana, Texas, and began the active prac- 
tice of his profession. He was elected to 
the state legislature in 1859, and in 1872 he 
was elected to congress from the state at 
large, as a Democrat. After his first elec- 
tion he was continuously returned to con- 
gress until he resigned to accept the posi- 
tion of United States senator, to which he 



212 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPlir. 



was elected March 23. 1892, to succeed 
Hon. Horace Chilton. He took his seat in 
the senate March 30, 1892; was afterward 
re-elected and ranked among the most use- 
ful and prominent members of that body. 
In 1876 he opposed the creation of the elec- 
toral commission, and in 1887 canvassed 
the state of Texas against the adoption of 
a prohibition amendment to its constitution, 
which was defeated. He introduced into 
the house of representatives the bill that was 
known as the "Mills Bill," reducing duties 
on imports, and extending the free list. 
The bill passed the house on July 21, 1888, 
and made the name of "Mills" famous 
throughout the entire country. 



HAZEN S. PINGREE, the celebrated 
Michigan political leader, was born in 
Maine in 1842. Up to fourteen years of 
age he worked hard on the stony ground of 
his father's small farm. Attending school 
in the winter, he gained a fair education, 
and when not laboring on the farm, he 
found employment in the cotton mills in the 
vicinity. He resolved to find more steady 
work, and accordingly went to Hopkinton, 
Massachusetts, where he entered a shoe fac- 
tory, but on the outbreak of the war he en- 
listed at once and was enrolled in the First 
Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. He partici- 
pated in the battle of Bull Run, which was 
his initial fight, and served creditably his 
early term of service, at the expiration of 
which he re-enlisted. He fought in the 
battles of Fredricksburg, Harris Farm, 
Spottsylvania Court House and Cold Har- 
bor In 1864 he was captured by Mosby, 
and spent five months at Andersonville, 
Georgia, as a prisoner, but escaped at the 
end of that time. He re-entered the service 
and participated in the battles of Fort 
Fisher, Boyden, and Sailor's Creek. He 



was honorably mustered out of service, and 
in 1866 went to Detroit, Michigan, where 
he made use of his former experience in a 
shoe factory, and found work. Later he 
formed a partnership with another workman 
and started a small factory, which has since 
become a large establishment. Mr. Pin- 
gree made his entrance into politics in 1889, 
in which year he was elected by a surpris- 
ingly large majority as a Republican to the 
mayoralty of Detroit, in which office he was 
the incumbent during four consecutive terms. 
In November, 1896, he was elected gov- 
ernor of the state of Michigan. While 
mayor of Detroit, Mr. Pingree originated 
and put into execution the idea" of allowing 
the poor people of the city the use of va- 
cant city lands and lots for the purpose of 
raising potatoes. The idea was enthusiast- 
ically adopted by thousands of poor families, 
attracted wide attention, and gave its author 
a national reputation as "Potato-patch Pin- 
gree." 

THOMAS ANDREW HENDRICKS, an 
eminent American statesman and a 
Democratic politician of national fame, was 
born in Muskingum county, Ohio, Septem- 
ber 7, 1819. In 1822 he removed, with his 
father, to Shelby county, Indiana. He 
graduated from the South Hanover College 
in 1841, and two years later was admitted 
to the bar. In 1851 he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the state constitutional convention, 
and took a leading part in the deliberations 
of that body. He was elected to congress 
in 185 1, and after serving two terms was 
appointed commissioner of the United States 
general land-office. In i 863 he was elected 
to the United States senate, where his dis- 
tinguished services commanded the respect 
of all parties. He was elected governor of 
Indiana in 1872, serving four years, and in 



COMPENDIUM OF BlOGRAPJiy 



213 



1876 was nominated by the Democrats as 
candidate for the vice-presidency with Til- 
den. The returns in a number of states 
were contested, and resulted in the appoint- 
ment of tlie famous electoral commission, 
which decided in favor of the Republican 
candidates. In 1884 Mr. Hendricks was 
again nominated as candidate for the vice- 
presidency, b}' the Democratic party, on the 
ticket with Grover Cleveland, was elected, 
and served about six months. He died at 
Indianapolis, November 25, 1885. Hewas 
regarded as one of the brainiest men in the 
party, and his integrity was never ques- 
tioned, even by his political opponents. 



GARRETT A. HOBART, one of the 
many able men who have held the 
high office of vice-president of the United 
States, was born June 3, 1844, in Mon- 
mouth county, New Jersey, and in i860 en- 
tered the sophomore class at Rutgers Col- 
lege, from which he graduated in 1863 at 
the age of nineteen. He then taught 
school until he entered the law office of 
S<ocr?tes Tuttle, of Paterson, New Jersey,, 
with whom he studied law. and in 1869 
was admitted to the bar. He immediately 
began the active practice of his profession 
ill the office of the above named gentleman. 
He became interested in political life, and 
espoused ti:e cause of the Republican party, 
and in 1865 held his first office, serving as 
clerk for the grand jury. He was also city 
counsel of Paterson in 1871, and in May, 
1S72, was elected counsel for the board of 
chosen freeholders. He entered the state 
legislature in 1873, and was re-elected to 
the assembly in 1S74. Mr. Hobart was 
made speaker of the assembly in 1876, and 
and in 1879 was elected to the state senate. 
After serving three years in the same, he 
was elected president of that body in 1881, 



and the following year was re-elected to 
that office. Hewas a delegate-at-large to 
the Republican national convention mi 1876 
and 1880, and was elected a member of the 
national committee in 1884, which pos-'tion 
he occupied continuously until 1896. He 
was then nominated for vice-president by 
the Republican national convention, anr* 
was elected to that office in the fall of 1896 
on the ticket with William McKinley. 



WILLIAM MORRIS STEWART, noted 
as a political leader and senator, was 
born in Lyons, Wayne county, New York, 
August 9, 1827, and removed with his par- 
ents while still a small child to Mesopota- 
mia township, Trumbull county, Ohio. He 
attended the Lyons Union school and Farm- 
ington Acadetny, where he obtained his ed- 
ucation. Later he taught mathematics in 
the former school, while yet a pupil, and 
with the little money thus earned and the 
assistance of James C. Smith, one of the 
judges of the supreme court of New York, 
he entered Yale College. He remained 
there until the winter of 1849-50, when, at- 
tracted by the gold discoveries in California 
he wended his way thither. He arrived at 
San Francisco in May, 1850, and later en- 
gaged in mining with pick and shovel in Ne- 
vada county. In this way he accumulated 
some money, and in the spring of 1852 he 
took up the study of law under John R. 
McConnell. The following December he 
was appointed district attorney, to which 
office he was chosen at the general election 
of the next year. In 1854 he was ap- 
pointed attorney-general of California, and 
in i860 he removed to Virginia City, Ne- 
vada, where he largely engaged in early 
mining litigation. Mr. Stewart was also in- 
terested in the development of the "Com- 
stoclf lode," and jn 1861 was chosen a 



214 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



member of the territorial council. He was 
elected a member of the constitutional con- 
vention in 1863, and was elected United 
States senator in 1864, and re-elected in 
1869. At the expiration of his term in 
1875, he resumed the practice of law in 
Nevada, California, and the Pacific coast 
generally. He was thus engaged when he 
was elected again to the United States sen- 
ate as a Republican in 1887 to succeed the 
late James G. Fair, a Democrat, and took 
his seat March 4, 1887. On the expiration 
of his term he was again re-elected and be- 
came one of the leaders of his party in con- 
gress. His ability as an orator, and the 
prominent part he took in the discussion of 
public questions, gained him a national rep- 
utation. 

GEORGE GRAHAM VEST, for many 
years a prominent member of the 
United States senate, was born in Frank- 
fort, Kentucky, December 6, 1848. He 
graduated from Center College in 1868, and 
from the law department of the Transyl- 
vania University of Lexington, Kentucky, 
in 1853. In the same year he removed to 
Missouri and began the practice of his pro- 
fession. In 1 860 he was an elector on the 
Democratic ticket, and was a member of 
the lower house of the Missouri legislature 
in 1860-61. He was elected to the Con- 
federate congress, serving two years in the 
lower house and one in the senate. He 
then resumed the practice of law, and in 
1 879 was elected to the senate of the United 
States to succeed James Shields. He was 
re-elected in 1885, and again in 1891 and 
1897. His many years of service in the 
National congress, coupled with his ability 
as a speaker and the active part he took in 
the discussion of public questions, gave him 
a wide reputation. 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN, a noted American 
statesman, whose name is indissolubly 
connected with the history of this country, 
was born in Paris, Maine, August 27, 1809. 
He learned the printer's trade and followed 
that calling for several years. He then 
studied law, and was admitted to practice 
in 1833. He was elected to the legislature 
of the state of Maine, where he was several 
times chosen speaker of the lower house. 
He was elected to congress by the Demo- 
crats in 1843, and re-elected in 1845. I" 
1848 he was chosen to the United States 
senate and served in that body until 1861. 
He was elected governor of Maine in 1857 
on the Republican ticket, but resigned when 
re-elected to the United States senate 
the same year. He was elected vice-presi- 
dent of the United States on the ticket with 
Lincoln in i860, and inaugurated in March, 
1 861. In 1865 he was appointed collector 
of the port of Boston. Beginning with 
1869 he served two six-year terms in the 
United States senate, and was then ap- 
pointed by President Garfield as minister to 
Spain in 1881. His death occurred July 4, 
1891. 

TSHAM G. HARRIS, famous as Confed- 
1 erate war governor of Tennessee, and 
distinguished by his twenty years of service 
in the senate of the United States, was 
born in Franklin county, Tennessee, and 
educated at the Academy of Winchester. 
He then took up the study of law, was ad- 
mitted to the bar, and commenced practice 
at Paris, Tennessee, in 1841. He was 
elected to the state legislature in 1847, was 
a candidate for presidential elector on the 
Democratic ticket in 1848, and the next 
year was elected to congress from his dis- 
trict, and re-elected in 1851. In 1853 he 
was renominated by the Democrats of his 



COMPENDIUM OF Jy/OGRAPI/r. 



215 



district, but declined, and removed to Mem- 
phis, where he tooit up the practice of law. 
He was a presidential elector-at-large from 
Tennessee in 1856, and was elected gov- 
ernor of the state the next year, and again 
in 1859, and in i86i. He was driven from 
Nashville by the advance of the Union 
armies, and for the last three years of the 
war acted as aid upon the staff of the com- 
manding general of the Confederate army 
of Tennessee. After the war he went to 
Liverpool, England, where he became a 
merchant, but returned to Memphis in 1867, 
and resumed the practice of law. In 1877 
he was elected to the United States senate, 
to which position he was successively re- 
elected until his death in 1897. 



NELSON DINGLEY, Jr., for nearly a 
quarter of a century one of the leaders 
in congress and framer of the famous 
" Dingley tariff bill," was born in Durham, 
Maine, in 1832. His father as well as all 
his ancestors, were farmers, merchants and 
mechanics and of English descent. Young 
Dingley was given the advantages first of 
the common schools and in vacations helped 
his father in the store and on the farm. 
When twelve years of age he attended high 
school and at seventeen was teaching in a 
country school district and preparing him- 
self for college. The following year he en- 
tered Waterville Academy and in 1851 en- 
tered Colby University. After a year and a 
half in this institution he entered Dart- 
mouth College and was graduated in 1855 
with high rank as a scholar, debater and 
writer. He ne.xt studied law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1856. But instead of 
practicing his profession he purchased the 
" Lewistown (Me.) Journal," which be- 
came famous throughout the New England 
states as a leader in the advocacy of Repub- 



lican principles. About the same time Mr. 
Dingley began his political career, although 
ever after continuing at the head of the 
newspaper. He was soon elected to the 
state legislature and afterward to the lower 
house of congress, where he became a 
prominent national character. He also 
served two terms as governor of Maine. 



OLIVER PERRY MORTON, a distin- 
guished American statesman, was born 
in Wayne county, Indiana, August 4, 1823. 
His early education was by private teaching 
and a course at the Wayne County Seminary. 
At the age of twenty years he entered the 
Miami University at O.xford, Ohio, and at 
the end of two years quit the college, began 
the study of law in the office of John New- 
man, of Centerville, Indiana, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1847. 

Mr. Morton was elected judge on the 
Democratic ticket, in 1852, but on tht 
passage of the " Kansas-Nebraska Bill " he 
severed his connection with that party, and 
soon became a prominent leader of the Re- 
publicans. He was elected governor of In- 
diana in 1 86 1, and as war governor became 
well known thrtjughout the country. He 
received a paralytic stroke in 1865, which 
partially deprived him of the use of his 
limbs. He was chosen to the United States 
senate from Indiana, in 1867, and wielded 
great influence in that body until the time 
of his death, November i, 1877. 



JOHN B. GORDON, a brilliant Confeder- 
ate officer and noted senatorof the United 
States, was born in Upson county, Georgia, 
February 6, 1832. He graduated from the 
State University, studied law, and took up 
the practice of his profession. At the be- 
ginning of the war he entered the Confederate 
service as captain of infantry, and rapidty 



216 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



rose to the rank of lieutenant-general, 
commanding' one wing of the Confederate 
army at the close of the war. In 1868 he 
was Democratic candidate for governor of 
Georgia, and it is said was elected by a large 
majority, but his opponent was given the 
office.- He was a delegate to the national 
Democratic conventions in 1868 and 1872, 
and a presidential elector both j-ears. In 
1873 he was elected to the United States 
senate. In 1 886 he was elected governor 
of Georgia, and re-elected in 18S8. He 
was again elected to the United States 
senate in 1890. serving until 1897, when he 
was succeeded by A. S. Clay. He was 
regarded as a leader of the southern Democ- 
racy, and noted for his fiery eloquence. 



STEPHEN JOHNSON FIELD, an illus- 
trious associate justice of the supreme 
court of the United States, was born at 
Haddam, Connecticut, November 4, 18 16, 
being one of the noted sons of Rev. D. 
D. Field. He graduated from Williams 
College in 1837. took up the study of law 
with his brother, David Dudley Field, be- 
coming his partner upon admission to the 
bar. He went to California in 1849. and at 
once began to take an active interest in the 
political affairs of that state. He was 
elected alcalde of Marysville, in 1850, and 
in the autumn of the same year was elected 
to the state legislature. In 1857 he was 
elected judge of the supreme court of the 
state, and two years afterwards became its 
chief justice. In 1863 he was appointed by 
President Lincoln as assdciate justice of the 
supreme court of the United States. During 
his incumbency, in 1873, he was appointed 
by the governor of California one of a com- 
mission to examine the codes of the state 
and for the preparation of amendments to 
the same for submission to the legislature. 



In 1877 he was one of tne famous eleciorai 
commission of fifteen members, and voted 
as one of the seven favoring the election cf 
Tilden to the presidency. In 1880 a large 
portion of the Democratic party favored his 
nomination as candidate for the presidency. 
He retired in the fall of 1897, having 
served a greater number of years on the 
supreme bench than any of his associates or 
predecessors. Chief Justice Marshall coming 
next in length of service. 



JOHN T. MORGAN, whose services in 
the United States senate brought him 
into national prominence, was born in 
Athens, Tennessee, June 20, 1824. At the 
age of nine years he emigrated to Alabama, 
where he made his permanent home, and 
where he received an academic education. 
He then took up the study of law, and was 
admitted to the bar in 1845. He took a 
leading part in local politics, was a presi- 
dential elector in i860, casting his ballot 
for Breckenridge and Lane, and in 1861 
was a delegate to the state convention which 
passed the ordinance of secession. In May, 
of the same year, he joined the Confederate 
army as a private in Company I, Cahawba 
Rifles, and was soon after made major and 
then lieutenant-colonel ofthe Fifth Regiment. 
In 1862 he was commissioned colonel, and 
soon after made brigadier-general and as- 
signed to the command of a brigade in Vir- 
ginia. He resigned to join his old regiment 
whose colonel had been killed. He was 
soon afterward again made brigadier-gen- 
eral and given command of the brigade that 
included his regiment. 

After the war he returned to the prac- 
tice of law, and continued it up to the time 
of his election to the United States senate. 117 
1877. He was a presidential elector in 1876 
and cast his vote for Tilden and HendricJ{5 



COMPENDIL^r OF BIOGRAP HY. 



217 



He was re-elected to the senate in 1883, 
and again in 18S9, and 1895. His speeches 
and the measures he introduced, marked 
as they were by an intense Americanism, 
brought him into national proiP'nence. 



WILLIAM McKINLEY.the twenty-fifth 
president of the United States, was 
born at Niles, Trumbull county, Ohio, Jan- 
uary 29, 1844. He was of Scotch-Irish 
ancestry, and received his early education 
m a Methodist academy in the small village 
of Poland, Ohio. At the outbreak of the 
war Mr. McKinley was teaching school, 
earning twenty-five dollars per month. As 
soon as Fort Sumter was fired upon he en- 
listed in a company that was formed in 
Poiand, which was inspected and mustered 
in by General John C. Fremont, who at 
first objected to Mr. McKinley, as being too 
young, but upon examination he was finally 
accepted. Mr. McKinley was seventeen 
when the war broke out but did not locik his 
age. He served in the Twenty-third Ohio 
Infantry throughout the war, was promoted 
from sergeant to captain, for good conduct 
on the field, and at the close of the war, 
for meritorious services, he was brevetted 
maior. After leaving the army Major Mc- 
Kinley took up the study of law, and was 
admitted to the bar, and in 1869 he took 
his initiation into politics, being elected pros- 
ecuting attorney of his county as a Republi- 
can, although the district was usually Demo- 
cratic. In 1 876 he was elected to congress, 
and in a call upon the President-elect, Mr. 
Haves, to whom he went for advice upon the 
way he should shape his career, he was 
told that to achieve fame and success he 
must take one special line and stick to it. 
Mr. McKinley chose tariff legislation and 
he became an authority in regard to import 
duties. He was a member of congress for 



many years, became chairman of the ways 
and means committee, and later he advo- 
cated the famous tariff bill that bore his 
name, which was passed in 1890. In the 
next election the Republican party was 
overwhelmingly defeated through the coun- 
try, and the Democrats secured more than 
a two thirds majority in the lower house, 
and also had control of the senate, Mr. 
McKinley being defeated in his own district 
by a small majority. He was elected gov- 
ernor of Ohio in 1891 by a plurality of 
twenty-one thousand, five hundred and 
eleven, and two years later he was re-elected 
by the still greater plurality of eighty thou- 
sand, nine hundred and ninety-five. He was 
a delegate-at-large to the Minneapolis Re> 
publican convention in 1892, and was in- 
structed to support the nomination of Mr. 
Harrison. He was chairman of the con- 
vention, and was the only man from Ohio 
to vote for Mr. Harrison upon the roll call. 
In November, 1892, a number of prominent 
politicians gathered in New York to discuss 
the political situation, and decided that the 
result of the election had put an end to Mc- 
Kinley and McKinleyism. But in less than 
four years from that date Mr. McKinley was 
nominated for the presidency against the 
combined opposition of half a dozen rival 
candidates. Much of the credit for his suc- 
cess was due to Mark A. Hanna, of Cleve- 
land, afterward chain.ian of the Republican 
national committee. At the electinn which 
occurred in November, 1896, Mr. McKinley 
was elected president of the United States 
by an enormous majority, on a gold stand- 
ard and protective tariff platform. He was 
inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1897, 
and called a special session of congress, to 
which was submitted a bill for tariff reform, 
which was passed in the latter part of July 
of that year. 



218 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER, 
knovn in the literary world as Joaquin 
Miller, " the poet of the Sierras," was born 
at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1841. ^^'hen only 
about thirteen years of age he ran away 
from home and went to the mining regions 
in California and along the Pacific coast. 
Some time afterward he was taken prisoner 
by the Modoc Indians and lived with them 
for five years. He learned their language 
and gained great influence with theni, fight- 
ing in their wars, and in all modes of living 
became as one of them. In 1858 he left 
the Indians and went to San Francisco, 
where he studied law, and in i860 was ad- 
mitted to the bar in Oregon. In 1866 he 
was elected a county judge in Oregon and 
served four years. Early in the seventies 
he began devoting a good deal of time to 
literary pursuits, and about 1874 he settled 
in Washington, D. C. He wrote many 
poems and dramas that attracted consider- 
able attention and won him an extended 
reputation. Among his productions may be 
mentioned " Pacific Poems," " Songs of the 
Sierras," "Songs of the Sun Lands," 
" Ships in the Desert," " Adrianne, a Dream 
of Italy," "Danites, " "Unwritten Histdry," 
" First Families of the Sierras " (a novel), 
" One Fair Woman " (a novel), " Songs of 
Italy," " Shadows of Shasta," "The Gold- 
Seekers of the Sierras," and a number of 
others. 

GEORGE FREDERICK ROOT, a 
noted music publisher and composer, 
was born in Sheffield, Berkshire county, 
Massachusetts, on August 30, 1820. While 
working on his father's farm he found time 
to learn, unaided, several musical instru- 
ments, and in his eighteenth year he went 
to Boston, where he soon found employ- 
ment as a teacher of music. From 1839 



until 1844 he gave instructions in music in 
the public schools of that city, and was also 
director of music in two churches. Mr. 
Root then went to New York and taught 
music in the various educational institutions 
of the city. He went to Paris in 1850 and 
spent one year there in study, and on his re- 
turn he published his first song, "Hazel 
Dell." It appeared as the work of " Wur- 
zel," which was the German equivalent of 
his name. He was the originator of the 
normal musical institutions, and when the 
first one was started in New York he 
was one of the faculty. He removed to 
Chicago, Illinois, in i860, and established 
the firm of Root & Cady, and engaged in 
the publication of music. He received, in 
1872, the degree of "Doctor of Music" 
from the University of Chicago. After the 
war the firm became George F. Root & Co., 
of Cincinnati and Chicago. Mr. Root did 
much to elevate the standard of music in this 
country by his compositions and work as a 
teacher. Besides his numerous songs he 
wrote a great deal of sacred music and pub- 
lished many collections of vocal and instru- 
mental music. For many years he was the 
most popular songwriter in America, and' 
was one of the greatest song writers of the 
war. He is also well-known as an author, 
and his work in that line comprises: " Meth- 
ods for the Piano and Organ," " Hand- 
book on Harmony Teaching," and innumer- 
able articles for the musical press. Among 
his many and most popular songs of the 
wartime are: " Rosalie, the Prairie-flower," 
" Battle Cry of Freedom," " Just Before the 
Battle," "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys 
are Marching, ' " The Old Folks are Gone," 
"A Hundred Years Ago," "Old Potomac 
Shore, "and " There's Music in the Air." Mr. 
Root's cantatas include "The Flower Queen'' 
and "The Haymakers." He died in 1896. 



BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



OF 



SCHUYLER COUNTY 



NEW YORK 





/J. 




BIOGRAPHICAL 



GENERAL GEORGE J. MAGEE. 

Honored and respected l)y all. there has 
been no resident of Schuyler county who 
iias occupied a more important ])osition in 
industrial and commercial circles than did 
General George Jefferson Magee of Wat- 
kins, not alone on account of tlie brilliant 
success he achieved, hut alsii because of the 
honorable, straightforward business policy 
he ever followed. He possessed untiring 
energy, was quick of perception, formed his 
])lans readily and was determined in their 
execution and his close applicatii)n to busi- 
ness and his excellent maiingement brought 
to him a high degree ui ])r(isperity. 
Ir. a large measure he puslied forward the 
wheels of progress, upon which rested the 
material and substantial upbuilding of the 
state. He controlled interests of vast mag- 
nitude with an ability that indicated a mas- 
ter mind, a clear calm judgment, and ac- 
curate recognition of possibility. 

General Magee was born in Bath, Steu- 
ben county. New York. March 17. 1840. 
His father was the late John Magee. a suc- 
cessful banker of Bath, who became the 
owner of extensive coal mines in Pennsyl- 
vania and was likewise interested in the or- 



ganization and construction of railroads in 
New York and in the Keystone state. He 
also figured prominently in public affairs 
and for four ysu's represented his district 
in the council chambers of the nation as a 
member of congress. His paternal ances- 
tors came from County Antrim. Ireland, in 
1756. and settled near Easton, Pennsyl- 
\ania. and the faniih- historv is gi\en more 
fully on another page of this \olume. His 
mother's people came from Ayrshire, Scot- 
land, and his mother from the north of 
I'jigland, settling in Loudoun county. \'ir- 
ginia, about the time the Magee family was 
established here. 

In the public schools of Bath General 
Magee began his education, which he con- 
tinued in Albany and in Lawrence\illc. New- 
Jersey, and in i860 he was graduated in 
Princeton College, lie then entered upon 
liis business career as an employe of the 
Steuben County Bank at Bath, and later 
became connected with the mining interests 
at I'all ProDk. Pciiusyl\-auia. Subseciuently 
he spent about eighteen months in traveling 
in Tuu-ope, after which he returned to the of- 
fice of the Fall Brook Coal Company in 
W'atkins. New York, and became familiar 
with his f.ilher's extensive business invest- 



224 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



ments and interests, so that he was well 
qualilied to assume an important business 
relation in these connections, at his father's 
dejith. On the death of John Magee, the 
president of the Eall Brook Coal Company 
and of the Blossburg & Corning Railroad 
Comi)any, ( leneral Magee became the vice 
president of each and upon the death of 
Duncan S. Magee, in June, 1869, he suc- 
ceeded to the presidency of both concerns. 
At the deatii of his father, on the 5th of 
April, 1868, (iencral Magee inherited a 
large property and was thereafter accupied 
with the interests which engrossed his fa- 
ther's attention. He became a trustee of his 
father's estate, which included the entire 
ownership of the bituminous coal interests 
represented by the Fall Brook Coal Com- 
pany in Tioga county, Pennsylvania, to- 
gether with the railroad property connected 
with the mines. The development and ex- 
tension of these interests formed the life 
work of General Magee. He was instru- 
mental in the building of the Wellsboro & 
Lawrenceville Railroad, later a part of the 
Fall Brook Railway system and now a part 
of the Xew York Central & Hudson River 
Railroad, projected and secured the build- 
ing of the Syracuse. Geneva & Corning 
Railway, also the 15eech Creek Railway, 
and the Pine Creek Railway, so that begin- 
ning with the ownership by the estate of his 
father of a railroad line of fifteen miles in 
length, capitalized at less than five hundred 
thousand dollars, having an eijuipmcnt of 
ten l(;comotives and a corresponding num- 
ber of cars, the lines of railroad now owned 
by the same interests aggregate about ono 
hundred miles with a capital sti>ck of i\\e 
million dollars and an equipmait of sev 
cnty-six locomotives and three thousand 
three hundred cars used in operating 



two hundred and fifty miles of owned 
and leased lines. The old Blossburg 
Railroad, fifteen miles in length, was 
the nucleus and later a part of through 
system of railroad known as the Fall Brook 
line, reaching from the Xew 'S'crk Central 
& Hudson River Railroad at Lyons and 
from Geneva to Williamsport, Pennsyl- 
vania, a distance of one hundred and 
eighty-five miles, connecting with the Phila- 
delphia & Reading road. These extensions 
and connections were made during the 
presidency of General ALigee and were 
planned and carried to a successful com- 
pletion by him. The Cowanesque \'alley 
branch of the same system was l)uilt in the 
same period from the main line to Ulysses 
in Potter comity, Pennsylvania. 

In connection with his railroad jjuild- 
ing (ieneral Magee had other extensive 
Insiness interests, which proved of great 
value and importance to the state as well 
as contributing to his individual prosperity. 
He was the projector, contractor and first 
general manager of the well known Beech 
Creek Railroad, having one hundred and 
fifty miles of line and now a part of the New 
"S'ork Central .system, reaching fmni Jersey 
Shore on the Pine Creek i^'ailway to 
the coal mines in Clearfield and Cambria 
counties, Pennsylvania. He was also the 
president of the I'all Brook Coal Company, 
the I'all Brook Railroad, the Morris Run 
C(5al Mining Company, the Tioga Improve- 
ment Company, and tlie Syracuse, Geneva 
1^ Corning Railroad Company; vice presi- 
dent of the Pine Creek Railroad ; and a di- 
rector of the Chest Creek Land & Improve- 
ment Company, of Cambria county, Peim- 
-sylvania, the Beech Creek Cannel Coal 
Company, of Clearfield county, Pennsyl- 
\ania, the Beech Creek Railroad, the Cen- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



225 



tial Dock & Terminal Cumpaiiy. of Jjiiltalu. 
New York, the Xortli River Coal & Wliarf 
Company, of Jersey City, and of the Knick- 
erbocker Trust Company, of Xew York 
city. These but serve to indicate the vol- 
ume and importance of the business interests 
with wliich General Magee was associated. 
In 1865 General Magee was united in 
marriage to Miss l-jiima Stothoff, of Hur- 
dett. Schuyler count)', New ^(lrk. and unto 
them w ere born seven children : .Anna Stot- 
hotY. John. Kathleen, Stewart, Arabella 
Helen, Emma Marie. Lusyd and (ieorge J. 
To a man of domestic tastes, such as Mr. 
Magee possessed, one of the greatest pleas- 
ures which came to him from his wealth, 
was in providing royally for his family. 
No other interest was so dear to his heart 
as the welfare of his wife antl children, lie 
had social relations, too, of a very pleasant 
character and was a popular and honored 
member of a number of the leading clubs of 
the Iimpire state, including the Lawyers,, 
the L'niversity, the Manhattan and the 
Princeton Clubs of Xew Ynrk city. His 
military title was received in 1869 under ap- 
pointment of Governor Hoffman to the po- 
sition of paymaster general of the state of 
New "S'ork. It is almost impossible to sum- 
marize a life record such as that of (jeneral 
Magee, for so \aried were his business in- 
terests and so active was he in lines of life, 
pertaining to the general progress of his na- 
tive state. His career was ever such as to 
warrant the trust and confidence of the busi- 
ness world, for he ever conducted all trans- 
actions on the strictest ))rinci])les of iionor 
and integrity. His devotion to the public 
goo<! was un(|uestioned and arose from a 
sincere interest in the welfare of liis fellow 
men. Moreover, in the community where 
he lived and in the localities where he was 



best known, there existed between him and 
his associates the warmer ties of frieiulship 
and of love. He was very charitable, never 
refusing any worthy person who applied to 
him for aid. 



WILLI \.\1 Ill'lXRN llALDW IX. 

Willi.ini I lenry Baldwin is the editor o£ 
the Walkins Democrat, of Watkins, New 
York, and has long been connected with 
journalis'tic interests here. Through the 
columns oi his paper he has promoted every 
movement and enterprise which he believed 
would contribute to the general good, and 
his journal exercises a strong influence in the 
community. 

Mr. Baldwin was born in Deerlield, Her- 
kimer county, Xew York, June 28, 1835, a 
son of Henry Downs and Mary Jane (Pease) 
Baldwin, who were the parents of ten chil- 
dren, of w horn nine are still living, eight song 
and one diuighter, all residents of Watkins, 
and the sons are all Democrats. When our 
subject was about two years old the family 
came to Schuyler county, locating in Wat-i 
kins, where during tiie winter months he was 
a student in the public .schools i;iUil he .-ir- 
rived at the age of eighteen. He then 
started out in life on his own account and 
whatever success he has .'ichieved and to 
\\halc\cr ])osition lie has attained he has the 
satisfaction of knowing that his own dili- 
gence, labor and capabilil\' have been the 
means of advancement. 

For one year Mr. Baklwin worked upon 
a farm and the following year began work 
with his father, who was a boatman and boat-- 
builik-r. He followed that life for four 
years and in 184S he l)egan his newspaper 
career as a ])rinter's devil on the Jefferson 



226 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Eagle at Jefferson. Xew \'ork. a paper 
tlien publislied in Jefferson, now W'atkins, 
and owned by John Wesley Smith. In 1859 
Mr. Baldwin went to Ovid. Seneca county, 
New York, where he entered into partner-t 
ship with John M. Riley and purchased the 
Seneca County Sentinel, which they con- 
ducted luitil 1861. when Mr. Baldwin sold 
his interest and entered the employ of George 
D. A. Bridgnian, in W'atkins. In August, 
1863. he went to Troy. Pennsylvania, where 
he purchased the Troy Times, a defunct 
paper, neglected and deserted i)y Azro C. 
Lombard, a former W'atk'us man. Mr. 
Baldwin purchased the plant and in a short 
time had the Times upon a jiaying basis. 
This was during the memorable discussion 
of the W'ilmot Proviso bill, of which David 
W'ilmot was the author. Through the aid 
of that gentleman and M. C. Murker, of 
Towanda. Pennsylvania, and other friends 
cf Troy, Mr. Baldwin succeeded in establish- 
ing a newspa[)er of much prominence and 
remained at Troy until October, 1865. In 
the latter part of that month he went to 
Hornellsville. Xew York, where he i)ur- 
chased the Democratic \'idelte. Subse- 
quently he sold a half interest in the rrt)y 
Times to A. S. Hooker, who was a strong 
Republican, and took up his residence iii 
Hornellsville. wliere he remained until the 
lOth of January. 1866. when he sold llic 
\'idette. which lias become a flourishing 
l-'aper, to the firm of Thacher & Tuttle. men 
of easy means and thirsting for newspaper 
lore. 

At that time Mr. Baldwin removed to 
Motts C(jrners in Tompkins county, remain- 
ing there during the winter as a part of the 
family of John Losey. his father-in-law. Inil 
on the 22d of May returned to Watkins, 
Here five days later he purchased the 



Schuyler County Democrat of Duncan S. 
and George J. Magee, and associated with 
him in the publication of an independent 
paper J. B. Look, who remained a factor in 
the enterprise for only four months. Mr. 
Baldwin then transformed the paper into a 
Democratic organ and was supported by the 
fiiendship and encouragement of the Ma- 
gees, well known and i)rominent representa- 
ti\es of the Democracy in this portion of the 
state. The paper was enlarged from seven 
columns to nine columns and was a promi- 
nent factor in the great camjiaign of Horatio 
Seymour, in iJ^Og. The Democrat was 
afterward tlecreased to an eight column 
paper and thus published until the 22(1 of 
February. 1891. when the plant was entirely 
destroyed by fire, with a loss of thirteen tlunn 
sand dollars, on which there was only twen- 
ty-eight hundrei! dollars insurance. With 
borrowetl money, Mr. Baldwin built what is 
known as the Baldwin block, on the comer 
of Second and Pranklin streets. It is seven- 
ty-five by seventy-five feet and three stories 
in height with t cupola on top. The second 
and third floors were used in his Imsiness. 
Ill 1893, however, his uncle Samuel G. Bald- 
win, of Cleveland. Ohio, who was in partner- 
ship with him, died and as the affairs were 
in a somewhat involved condition it was 
necessary for our subject to re-deed the 
building to the parties wlu) had loaned the 
money, and thus he found himself with very 
little capital. However, he purchased a lot 
on his present site and on the 5th of Novem- 
ber, 1895, commenced the erection of the 
building which he now occu])ies, taking ])os- 
session of it on the 19th of January, 1S96. 
That year the Chicago convention nominated 
W. J. Bryan for the presidency and endorsed 
a platform in favor of free silver, and to- 
gether with manv others of the Democratic 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



227 



party wlio were leaders ihrougliout tlie 
country, he refused to support tlie platform. 
In the spring of 1896 some free silver men 
purchased of John Corbitt the Schuyler 
County Advocate and merged it into a 
Democratic opposition, later changing it to 
the Review, which is now published here. 
Through the instrumentality of the Demo- 
cratic supervisors and the Democratic coun- 
t\- committee the opposition paper was given 
the session laws with the view of squelching 
the Democrat. Soon afterward Ceneral 
Magee, who had been the chief friend of the 
Democrat, died and Mr. Baldwin was 
thus left to fight his own way iigainst the 
opposition and the free silver attitude of 
the old i)arty. The paper. li(>\\e\er. has a 
good circulatif)n and is published weekly. It 
is neat and attractive in its make-up and is 
always found the earnest advocate of Wat- 
kins' prosperity and its iniprovcmcnt and 
progress. When Mr. Baldwin came to Wat- 
kins there w ere but three papers in the coun- 
ty, but at the present writing in 1903 there 
is one paper in Montour Falls, three in Wat- 
kins, one in Burdett and one in Odessa. He 
does all kinds of job printing and has a 
thoroughly complete and modern plant, the 
building being seventy-five by twenty-five 
feet and three stories high. It is heated by 
steam, lighted by gas and electricity, is 
supi)lierl with city water and connected \\ itli 
tlie .sewer system and has excellent ])lunili- 
ing arrangements. 

On the 3d of January. i(Sr>3. Mr. Bald- 
win was united in marriage to Miss Louise 
E. Lo.sey, a daughter of John and Laura 
(John.son) Losey. They became the pa- 
rents of four children : Donna Madelon, 
who died at the age of twelve years; John, 
who died at the age of five years : Marian 
P., the wife of .\lfre<l C. Woodward, of 



Watkins; and William, who died when five 
years of age. 

Mr. Baklwin has served as trustee of his 
village for one term, has been clerk of the 
board aufl canal collector and was post- 
master during President Cleveland's first 
term. He attends the Presbyterian church 
and at one time was a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd I'ellows and the 
Knights of Pythias. He has taken i)artic- 
uiar interest in supporting any enteri)rise cal- 
culated to advance the welfare of Watkins. 
Through his paper he strongly advocated 
the system of water and sewerage for 
the city, which measures were adojned and 
the work successfully completed. He also 
agitated and encouraged the establishment 
of the electric light plant and telephone sys- 
tem and the building of the electric railway 
between Watlcins and IClmira. When he 
erected the Baldwin block he put in lioi and 
cold water, sewerage and steam pipes, the 
building being quite modern in all its ap- 
pointments, and this resulted in compelling 
other business l)locks to make impro\e- 
ments that were never thought of be- 
fore. The erection of the Baldwin block 
was the initiation of a period of business 
block building in Watkins, .so that the vil- 
lage now has a number of architectural 
structures supplied with modern con\en- 
iences that any town might be proud of. 



OTIS R. CORBETT. 

The Corbetts of the British Isles and 
.\merica are descendants of the family of 
whom was Hugh Corbet or Corbeau. seat- 
ed in Xormandy in 1040. There are twelve 
countv f.'Muilie^ beririiitr the name of Corbet 



228 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



or Corl)ett, now seated in England, of 
whom Ilnrke's Peerage states : "Tliis is 
one of the few famihes stiil existing, who 
trace in the male line an undoubted descent 
from an ancient race of the same name in 
Normandy." 

Hugli Corbet or Corbeau had issue four 
sons, Hugh, Roger, Robert and Reginald. 
Of these Hugh, the eldest son, succeeded to 
the lands in Normandy and was ancestor of 
the Corbets of that country. Reginald, the 
youngest son, accompanied Hugh, Count 
dc Saint Paul, to the Holy Land in 1096, 
anfl was ancestor of the Corl^ets of Artois 
and of p'landers; Chatelaines de Saint Paul. 
The two other sons, Roger and Robert, ac- 
companied their father into England, at the 
Norman invasion under William the Con- 
queror, in 1066. Roljcrt. tiie third son, re- 
cei\ed large estates in Shropshire and else- 
where. an<l had issue one son, Robert Cor- 
bet. Lord of Alcester, County Warwick, 
who died without issue, and two daughters, 
Sibil, ancestress of the Earls of Pembroke, 
and Alice, ancestress of the Earls of Hunt- 
ingdon. 

Roger Corbel, tlic second son of Hugh 
Corbet or Corbeau, held ;it the general sur- 
\ey no less than twenty-four lordships in 
Shropshire, or, as it was anciently known, 
the County Salop. He left a son William 
Corbet of Caus Castle, who was the fa- 
ther 6f Sir Robert Corbet, from whom de- 
scendeil Peter Corbet, who was summoned 
to Parliament as a Haron by Edward I. The 
eldest son, Thomas Corbet, was grand- 
father of Sir Ricliard Corbet, who settled 
at Moreton-Corbet, and his direct line con- 
tinues still to reside there, the present senior 
representative being Sir Walter Orlando 
CorJiet. Moreton-Corljet is a jiarish in the 
hundrefl of North Bradford, County Salop. 



The church dedicated to St. Bartholomew 
is an ancient structure, and contains effigies 
and monuments to the Corbet family. Near 
it are the ruins of Moreton-Corbet castle, 
which was erected on the site of an older 
one in the sixteenth century, and was burned 
during the civil wars. 

Robert Corbett, soldier of King Philip's 
war, in service on the Connecticut river in 
1675-76, is the first of the family of record 
in America. He married Priscilla Rock- 
wood in 1682, and b)' her became possessed 
of large land holdings in the town of Men- 
don, Worcester county, Massachusetts. 
Of his sons, Daniel Corbett married Sarah 
Jones in 1717. He was an elder of the Con- 
gregational church and a man of promin- 
ence in affairs of community. His children 
were two sons, Daniel and Nathaniel, and 
seven daughters. His youngest daughter 
Alice, niarricil Dudley Chase, and was the 
grandmother of Secretary Salmon P. 
Chase. Daniel Corbett, Jr., was born in 
1720, and by Mary, his wife, had seven sons 
and five daughters. He was a deacon in the 
( "ongregational church, of which his father 
had been an elder, and his death occurred 
ill 17^1, the same year as the birth of his 
youngest son, John Corbett. The sons of 
Daniel Corbett, Jr., were Robert Corbett, 
Nathaniel, Daniel, Peter, Joseph, Eldad 
and John, and all but Josepli were soldiers 
of the Revi;>lution. 

Rf)bert Corbett of the Revolution, great- 
grandson of Robert Corljett of King Phil- 
ip's war, was born in 1745, and m.irried 
F.lizabeth Daniels in 1769. They were the 
ixirents of eleven children, eight of whom 
became heads of families. Robert Corbett 
was born in that portion of the town of 
Mendon which was set off as Milford, and in 
i7r;o he named his settlement on the Salt 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



229 



Lick creek, near tlie <;reat bend ni the Sus- 
quehanna river, as Xew Milford, in honor 
of his former home. He left I'cnnsylvani.i 
in 1 80 1 and founded Corbeltsville. now in 
Broome county. Xew ^'ork, wiiere his dcjith 
occurred in if^^.v Of liis sons, Asaph Cor- 
belt, Sewell and Cooper, the latter two re- 
mained witii him, and were jointly inter- 
ested in extensive timber operations. On 
their large land holdings in Potter county, 
Pennsylvania, is located Corbett, the site of 
the largest wood alcoiiol factory in America, 
and in which the great-grandsons of Rob- 
ert Corbett, Marshall Corbclt and Julius 
Corbett I-'ish, have ownersliii). Another 
great-grandson was the late Llias J. Beards- 
ley, lV)r many years superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction in I-Llmira. A granddaugh- 
ter. Charlotte Lc.ich Drake, who died in 
1901, aged eighty-six years, was the author 
of a descriptive poem on W'atkins (ilen. 

Asaph Corbett, eldest son of Robert 
Corbett, was born in Milford, Massa-, 
chusetts, in 1769, and there married Ma- 
ti'd.i Read in 1790. He accompanied his 
father to New Milford, Pennsylvania, and 
built the first frame house in the place. He 
bought a farm in the town of Catharine, 
now in Schuyler county, Xew York, in 
1804, but in 181J, having sold it, he pur- 
chased lands on the west shore of Seneca 
lake, in the town of Reading, and made it 
his home until his death in 1847. His son. 
Chester L"orbett, was with him in all his 
business operations and inherited the home- 
stead. His daughters were I'etsev, who 
became the wife of Charles Deming; 
Nancy, wife of William Lord; and Emma, 
wife of Daniel Miller. I'hester Corbett was 
born in 1705 ami married Sally i.ehexre 
in 181S. She was the daughter of Lewis 
LeFe\re of the Huguenot family of Ulster 



county, Xew York, ami a pioneer of the 
town of Hector in 1804 and the town of 
Reading in 181 2. Her birth occurred in 
1800 and her death in 1864. Chester Cor- 
bett dying in 1869. Their children who be- 
came heads of families were Otis Read Cor- 
bett; Matilda, wife of Samuel K. (lilbert; 
Xancy, wife of John \V. Warner; Charles 
M. Corbett, and John Wallace Corbett, all of 
v.hom remained in the town of Reading. 

Otis R. Corbett was born September 27, 
1818, and is still in the enjoyment of good 
health and all his faculties at the age of 
e'ghty-four years. He has exemplified the 
principles of his father, who was a Whig 
and a Republican and an advocate of tem- 
perance reform, liaving as early as 1828 de- 
sisted from furnishing spirits in the haying 
and harvest fields. He was an exemplary 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
long holding oi't'cial position in the or- 
ganization, and e\er acti\e in town af- 
fairs, and in these respects his son has emu- 
lated his example. After recei\ing a good 
cifuinion school education, Otis R. Corbett, 
at the age of eighteen, entered an ;irtillery 
company, commanded by Captain Reuben 
I.el'evre, of Reading, and in 1839 was or- 
ilcrly under Captain John Roycc, of luldy- 
ti>wn. In 1842 he was promoted to first 
lieutenant, and to captain in 1844, the fol- 
lowing year he being" appointed president (if 
the board of court marli.d. liaving satis- 
fied not only the re(|uirements of the law by 
ten years of military ser\ice, but his own 
as])irations in th.il line, he turned his atten- 
tion to the more important duties of life. 
In i8f>o and for six years thereafter lie 
was assessor of the town of Reading, and 
diu'ing the Ci\il war, under the directi<in of 
the adjutant general, rendered efficient ser- 
\ice in the enrollment of troops. In 1878 



2.^0 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



he was llie Republican caiuiidate fur super- 
visor of his town, but was defeated by a 
coaHtion of the Greenback and Democratic 
parties. His son, Jolm Corbett, retrieved 
the poHtical tield, liaving been RqnibUcan 
supervisor of Reading in 1896-97. 

Otis R. Corbett and Adeha B. Chase 
were united in marriage October i. 1846. 
She was Ixim in Oneida countv. .\'ew \'()rk, 
Xovemlier Ji, 1S27. and came tn llie town of 
Rea(Hng as a scIkxjI teaclier. She is a 
descendant of tlie Chase famjiy of Xew 
England, of whom was Dudley Chase, who 
married Alice Corbett in Mendon, Massa- 
chusetts. A brother, the late Hiram W. 
Chase, was long a leading atturnev of La 
I'ayette, Indiana. The children of Otis R. 
and Adelia Corbett nunihcrcd ten, i>f whom 
Ine are decejised. Three sons grew to ex- 
emplary manhood before their demise, and 
none but called them friends. They were 
Walter S. Corbett, aged twenty-seven 
years: Chester I.. Corbett. age.l forty-se\en 
years, and (jeorge .\. (."orbelt, ageil thirt_\- 
eight years. .\ daughter and a son died in in- 
fancy. The living children are John Cor- 
bett, who has sijmewhat of r reputation as a 
newspaper writer on local historical sub- 
jects, anil is now with the Fdniira .\dver- 
tiser: Mary T. Corbett, Sophia C. Corbett 
and William Corbett. of the homestead; and 
Joseph J. Corbett of ihc Topeka, Kansas. 
Mail and Breeze. The farm which has 
been the home of this family for half a cen 
tury, is a monument of the enterprise and in- 
dustry of ihe faliier and the co-operative 
efforts of the mother and children. Re- 
verses have come at times, the home having 
been destroyed by fire in 1874. but ad\ance- 
ment has always ensued. I'rom the heights 
of Seneca, near the family dwelling, the 
shores and surface of this peerless lake are 



visible for a score of miles. At the water 
front of the old farm a great salt plant is in 
operation, and on the original homestead 
one mile northward, a test well is now being 
dri\en, through the co-operation of the 
Corbetts and others. A man"s life cannot 
be fully written until it is past, and there 
may be important events yet in store for 
Otis R. Corbett. <lespite his advanced age. 



CLARK W ICKHAM. 

One of the richest farming sections of 
the great Empire state is that comprised 
within Schuyler county. Its rich and aral)le 
land furnishes excellent opportunities to the 
.igriculturist or to the market gardener. 
The soil is productive ami yields an excel- 
lent retiu-n for the labors of the man who 
cultivates it. Clark Wickham is among the 
number who is now successfully carrying 
on agricultural work in this portion of the 
state. 

He was born in Hector, Schuyler 
county, on the y\ of Xmember, 1836, and 
is a son of b'rastus and .\lmeda (Everets) 
Wickham. in whose family were eight chil- 
dren : Clark. Mary, Martha. Marion. Cla- 
ris.sa, Harriet, Charles and Emma. Ma- 
rion married luneline Gardner and they 
had three chilren — I'rederick, who is now- 
deceased : b'ord and Lavcrn. Martha D. 
married Osborn h'.verets and their children 
are Walter, Ini, I'.mma and Theodore. 
Harriet is the wife of Charles Stottle and 
resides in Odessa. Charles married .\melia 
Keep and their children are William W., 
\ ina. May and Xellie. Emma is the widow 
of Charles Keep, who died in 1900. leaving 
two children. Almedia and .\nna. 



Till 



I'.KX.UAI'HICAL RECORD 



231 



In the common scliools Clark W'ickham 
pursued his education hut put aside his hook-; 
at the age of eighteen in order to earn iiis own 
living. He then weiit to Montour Falls and 
began farming, which occupation he has fol- 
lowed throughout his entire life, finding in 
it a profitable source of income. 1 le resides 
in ^^ontour townshi]). near L)dessa, where 
he owns about one hundred acres of laud. 
'Iliis lie has ])laced under high state of 
cultivation and it yields U> him a golden 
tribute fur the care and lalmr lie beslcnvs 
u])on it. 

In 185S .Mr. W'ickham was united in 
marriage to Miss Maryette Pratt, a daugh- 
ter of Seth and Sarah ( Runyan ) Pratt, 
who were residents of I'.urdett at one time. 
In 1875 Mr. Wickiiam was called upon to 
mourn the loss of his wife, who died in that 
year. Six years later he married Helen 
Herrick, of Catharine. Xew \'ork. The 
children by his first marriage are Clarence. 
Alice, Oscar, Carrie, Henry. May. Cor- 
nelius and Cora. Clarence is now engaged 
in the grocerv business,- which he has fol- 
lowed for thirteen years. He married Alice 
Shoemaker and they have four children : 
Edward and Randolph, twins; and Clar- 
erce Ely and .\melia, also twins. .Mice is 
the wife of Clark Smith, proprietor of a 
hotel in Elmira, and they have one son, 
Harry. Oscar is a resident farmer residing 
in Odessa, and his wife bore the nriidcn 
name of Kate Monlgomcrv. Carrie is the 
wife of Clarence Dunham, of Montour 
balls. Henry married Almira Fowler and 
has one child. Clarence. By his second 
marriage our subject has three childrai : 
Omar Clark, l-juma I'llvira and Miner 
Loyal. .Mr. and Mrs. W'ickham have a 
pleasant home upon their fariu. and 
through the exercise of industry, enterprise 



and capable management he has met with 
well merited success and is now numljered 
among the substantial agriculturists of his 
communitv. wideK known and valued for 



his sterling worth. 



.\. 1. M.XRTIX. 



.\n enterprising business man connected 
with the industrial business interests of 
Schuyler comity. Mr. Martin, as proprietor 
of the Watkins Chilled Plow Works, is car- 
rying on a prosperous undertaking. He is 
a native of Pennsylvania, his birth having 
occurred near Bradford, October 23, 1861. 
His paternal great-grandfather. William 
M;nlin. familiar! v known as I'ncle Billv in 
ihe commuml\- where he S(j long resided, 
w as born in Connecticut, and when a young 
man removed to what was then considered 
the "far west." settling in Schuyler county. 
Xew York, near Burdett. There he took 
up a large tract of land — a soldier's claim — 
and to the (leveloi)mcnl and cultivation of 
his farm he devoted his energies until he 
had reached an adxanced age. when he re- 
nnived to Horseheads. this state, and there 
spent his remaining days. .Xrchibald Mar- 
tin, the grandfather of our subject, was a 
farmer and livetl and died in Schuyler 
coimty. Among his children was W. S. 
Martin, the father of our suliject, who was 
born in this county, Xovember 20, 1S3J, 
and has always lived in this portion of the 
state with the exception of a few years 
passed in Pennsylvania. In politics he is a 
Democrat but has never been a i)olitician in 
the sense of office seeking, giving his entire 
attention to his agricultural pursuits. He 
marrietl .\l)igail Davis. 

When ;il)out se\'eii or eight years of age 



232 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Mr. Martin of tliis re\ie\v accompanied his 
parents on their return to Sclniyler county 
and upon tlie liome farm lie was reared, ac- 
quiring a common scliool education. W'lien 
sixteen years of age lie accepted a clerkship 
in a railroad office and Mas promoted to po- 
sitions of respcjnsihility. When the road 
changed hands he left his position and re- 
turned to Schuyler county in 1902. In Jul}- 
of the same year, in company with others, 
he leased the plant of the W'atkins Chilled 
Plow Company and has since Ijeen manager 
of the business. When running to its full 
capacity the business rec|uircs the ser\ices of 
ten men. Under the capable control of the 
men who are at its head, the enteq)rise has 
already made an encouraging start and has 
a bright outlook before it. 

On the 1st of May, 1889, Mr. Martin 
was united in marriage to Miss I'annie 
Maltby, a native of Corning, and a daugh- 
ter of Jerome and Mary (Beers) Maltby. 
Our subject and his wife now have three 
children : \nna and William S., both lK)rii 
in Corning; and Wellington, born in Wat- 
kins. Mr. Martin is a Republican, ha\ing 
supported the party since he cast his first 
vote for James G. Blaine in 1884. He be- 
longs to one of the oldest families of this 
])art of the state, the name of Martin having 
been associated with the history of Schuyler 
county from the pioneer ei)och down to the 
presait. 



DAX'IF.L HOWARD. 

Daniel Howard is now living a retired 
life. The fitting rewards of an active and 
useful career have been vouchsafed to him 
— rest from further labor and the enjoy- 
ment of the fruits of former toil. Import- 



ant and extensive business affairs claimed his 
attention and energies and were conducted 
with marked enterprise and skill. Thereby 
ho won a handsome competence and, more- 
over, he commanded the respect of all with 
whom he was associated because his 
n:ethods were honorable and would 1)ear 
the closest in\estigation. 

Mr. Howard was born in Steuben 
countx', near Watkins, in what is now- 
Schuyler county. Xew York, March 24, 
181 6. and is a son of Joseph and Christine 
(Hill) Howard. His father was born in 
Xew Hampshire in 1792 and when a young 
man remo\ed to Steuben county. His pa- 
ternal grandfather, Joseph Howard, was 
one of the heroes of the Revolutionary war, 
and the father was a soldier of the war of 
181 2. The family has ever been noted for 
loyalty to the country and for tidelity to the 
public good and this reputation has been 
well sustained by the subject of this review. 

Daniel Howard j^ursued his early edu- 
cation in the subscription >chools common 
a! that day and also in the district schools, 
which were established. At tb.e age of 
fourteen years he started out in life for him- 
self, going to li\e with .a cousin, Jonathan 
T. .\l)le, a merchant at Rock Stream, Yates 
comity, for whom he clerked until his re- 
moval to Tyrone. Several years later he 
went to .\lbany with ;\Ir. .Vble's brother- 
in-law, Mr. Patterson, who was also a mer- 
chant, and had full control of his business 
for four years. .\t the end of that time he 
returned to his former employer, with 
whom he remained until eighteen years of 
age, when he went to Italy, Yates county, 
and embarked in linsiness on his own ac- 
count under tlie (irm style of D. Howard & 
Company but fourteen days later his store 
was ilest roved bv fire, so that he lost every- 



THE BJUGRAPHICAL RECORD 



233 



tiling", being left se\en thousand duUars in 
debt. Later lie resunied merchandising at 
tliat place, erected a nice store l)uilding, and 
was there engaged in business for twenty 
years with good success. While a resident 
of Italy lie Ijecame converted and joined the 
Methodist Episcopal church, l)ecoming one 
of its most acti\e and influential members. 
He contributed almost the entire amount re- 
quired to erect the church tliere and at dil- 
fcrent times tilled all of its otilices. 

Selling out at that place, Mr. Howard 
bought a farm near (icncva, New York, 
where he spent five years engaged in specu- 
lation, and then disposed of his interests 
there and removed to W'atkins, where he 
was engaged in the hardware business for 
four years, at the end of w hich time he sold 
out to his partner, J. 1). I'axne. He was 
one of the organizers of tiic Second Nation- 
al Bank of W'atkins and became its presi- 
dent, serving in that capacity for four 
years. He then resigned that postion and 
built a large and magniliccnt residence on 
his farm adjoined the village, wliere lie 
has since resided, looking after his business 
interests. 

In 1847 -^1'- Howard was united in 
marriage to Miss Hannah P. Robinson, a 
native of Yates county. New York, and a 
daughter of .\ndrew and Phyllis ( Straugh- 
an) Robinson. Her mother was born in 
England. Our sul)ject ami his wife have 
two chihlreu : Mary, now the wife of b'd- 
win Rumsey, a resident of W'atkins; and 
Alice, the wife of DeW'itt C. Jaiisen, who is 
operating her father's farm. 

In his political views Mr. Howard was a 
Whig in early life and upon the dissolution 
of the party he joined the ranks of the new 
Republican party, of which he has been a 
stalwart advocate. At present he is serv- 



ing as stewanl and a class leader in the 
Methodist Episcopal church of W'atkins 
.111(1 has e\er put forth effective effort \.'> 
promote the welfare and upbuilding of the 
same. At one time he was identified with 
the Odd Fellows society and was one of the 
organizers of the lodge in Yates county. 
He has now passed the eighly-si.xth mile- 
stone on life's journey and he receives the 
veneration and respect which should ever be 
accorded to one of advanced years, whose 
life has been honorable and upright. Mr. 
Howard has ever been loyal in citizenship, 
true to the duties and obligations of home 
life, faithful in friendship and reliable in 
business. Such qualities have made his ca- 
reer one well worthy of emulation. 



ALLEN C.EORCE BECKER. 

riirougliout his entire life .\llen Ceorge 
Becker has devoted his energies to agricul- 
tural pursuits and is to-day classed among 
tlie leading, progressive . and successful 
farmers of his native town of Hector. He 
was born here on the 28th of .\ugust, 1831, 
his parents being Cjeorge and Anna (Gar- 
rison) Becker. His grandfather, Peter 
Becker, was of Holland-Uutch lineage and 
it is supposed he ser\ed as a .soldier in the 
war of iSiJ, probably enlisting from 
Dutchess county. New NOrk. His wife be- 
longed to an old Knickerbocker famil\\ 
George Becker, the father of our subject, 
was bom in December, 1799. in Dutchess 
county, and in the year i8-'4 he came from 
Rensselaer county to Schuyler county, cast- 
ing in his lot with the early settlers who 
laid broad and deep the foundation for the 
[nesent (le\elopmcnt and jirospcritv of this 



234 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



IJortion uf the state. He was a fanner by 
occupation and cnt the lirsl stick of tinii)er 
on his own farm. He also rolled up the 
logs with which to build the house and soon 
his family were established in a comfortable 
log cabin, which in later years was re- 
placed by a more commodious residence. 
With characteristic energy he continued the 
task of clearing his land, preparing it for 
the plow and in cultivating the fields, and 
ultimately became the owner of a very valu- 
able tract of one hundred ;md thirty acres, 
also one hundred acres in the town of Cat- 
lin, Chemung county, \ew ^'ork. He was 
a prominent and influential citizen of the 
ciimmunity and left the impress of his indi- 
viduality upiin many lines cif public im- 
Ijrovement. Having located near Uennetts- 
burg. he assisted in organizing the Baptist 
church there, became one of its charter 
members and served as one of its deacons 
until his death. The organization has since 
been maintained and the present house of 
W(jrship stands on the ground where the 
tirst church building was erected. Mis 
death occurred in 18O3 and his wife i)assed 
away on the iilh of November. 1879. I'or 
many years he .served as superintendent of 
the poor and was also prominent in military 
circles, serving for many vears as captain 
of the state militia. He married Anna (Har- 
rison, a member u( an old Connecticut 
family, and she was born November i, 
1803. They had nine children: Elizabeth. 
Harlow, LeRoy. Marium G.. Allen G., 
Maretta R.. .\manda .M.. Charles V.. and 
Julia \i. Of their sons, all were farmers 
with the e.xception of the youngest, Charles 
I".., who became a minister of the Baptist 
church and devoted his life to the work of 
]iroclaiming the Gos])el until he was called 
to his final rest. 



Allen George Becker is indebted to the 
early subscription schools and to the district 
schools of his town for the educational 
])rivileges which he enjoyed and when he 
completed his nwn literary course he then 
turned his attention to teaching in this coun- 
t\- for h\e years. He jjroved a capable ed- 
ucator, being accurate and concise in impart- 
ing his knowledge to others. When he left 
the school room he turned his attention to 
farming, which he has since followed in his 
native town with credible and gratifying 
success, and upon the farm he has reared his 
family. He has one hundred and two acres 
of fine farming land upon which lie has lived 
continuously for <'i third of a century. Here 
lie carries on general farming and he also 
lias a large apple orchard, from w Inch he an- 
nually gathers good crops that find a ready 
sale on the market. 

1 k' was united in marriage on the 1st of 
July, 1856, to Lydia Maria \'aughan, a 
daughter of Samuel and .\nn (Rauh) 
\'auglian. Airs. Becker's grandfather, 
Daniel \ auglian, was born June 17, 1746, 
and was one of three broihers who came 
from England to America, settling in New 
Jersey, where the grandfather died. He 
was twice married, his fii^st union being 
with Dinah Watkins. who was born March 
8 1748, .and for his second wife he chose 
li.'um.'di Reed, who was the widow of Ben- 
jamin Ogden. By the first marriage of 
Daniel X'aughan there were eleven children : 
Elizabeth, Jacob, Rachel, Richard, Lydia, 
Sarah, Rhoda. Din.-di. Daniel, David and 
Tf>hn. The chililren of the scnrond marriage 
were: Samuel. Benjamin, .\znbah. Han- 
nah. Phoebe. William and Amanda. By 
her liist marriage Mrs. Hannah Vaughan 
had four children : .\mos, Mary, Joseph 
and Sarah. Mr. \'auglian was a Baptist 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



235 



minister. Saimiel X'aiig^lian. ilic lather ul 
Mrs. Becker, was Ixini in December, 1795, 
and came from Blairstown, Warren ct)nnt\-. 
New Jersey, to Scluiyler county. Xew 
York, in the year iSjj. taking np his abode 
in the town of Hector. Tliroughout liis en- 
tire hfe he carrieil on agricultural pursuits 
and at one time he owned ti\ e hundred acres 
of valuable land, of whicli three hundretl 
acres was in the town of Hector, while i\\" 
hundred acres were situated in the town 
of Big I'lats, Chenning county. He was 
also quite prominent in public affairs and 
filled a number of local offices with credit 
to himself and satisfaction to his constitu- 
ents. He died in April, 1864. and his wife, 
\\ho was born in 1797, passed away in Xo- 
veniber, 1876, at the achanced age of sev- 
enty-nine years. They were the parents 
of twelve children: .Michael, Hannah, 
William K.. Daniel. Sally .\nn. Amos O., 
Johnson, Rachel. Rhoda. Lydia Al.. .\zubah 
and Catharine, all of whom reached years of 
maturity. The father of this fainil\' was ;i 
member of the Presbyterian church and f^r 
many years served as its elder, liolding the 
position up to the time of his death, when he 
v.as succeeded by his son. Daniel. lie aid- 
ed in laying out the various road-; of Schuy- 
ler county and was one of the leading agri- 
culturists of the county. His sons also be- 
came farmers. 

Mr. and Mrs. Becker hold membership 
in the Presbyterian church and are worthy 
Christian people. In politics he was a Whig 
in early life and cast his first presidential 
vote for General Scott. When the Republi- 
can party was formed in 183O he jcjined its 
ranks and has since been one of its stal- 
wart advocates. In 1882 he was elected 
supervisor of the town of Hector and his 
term of service extended to the vear of 



1884. During his term he was the promoter 
and organizer of the first board of health of 
the town, the records of which stand among 
those I if the first boards of health in the 
state. l-iir many years he was a notary 
public and through a long ])eri(id he was a 
n.ember of the town b<jard of health. He 
has actively co-operated in many measures 
for the public good, his efforts proving of 
benellt and \alue to the comunmity in which 
his entire life has been passed and of which 
he is known to be a progressive aiul reliable 
citizen. 



THOMAS RY.W CL.\RK. 

Thomas Ryan Clark, now deceased, was 
for nian\- years a leading merchant of Wat- 
kins, where he was engaged in the whole- 
sr le and retail grocery trade. He was a 
man of enterprise, of keen discrimination in 
business affairs and one whose strenuous 
life led to marked success. His birth oc- 
curred in X'erniont on the 15th of June, 
1847, 'i'^ parents being Owen and Mary 
I Ryan ) Clark, who remi>\ ed to Schuyler 
county in the year 1840, locating on a farm 
in the town of Reading. There the son, 
Thomas R., was reared to manhc>od, acquir- 
iiig a common-school education. His fa- 
ther was a stiiue mason and laborer, and be- 
ing in somewhat limited linancial circum- 
stances, the son was earlv forced to begin 
work on his own account. At the age of 
e.ghteen he went west, joining a surveying 
party, and for a number of years he followed 
that profession, visiting various cities. In 
this time he accumulatetl some capital, and, 
upon his return fn«n the west, he engagetl 
in the grocery trade, establishing a small re- 
tail business. This he developed as the 



235 



THE BlOGRAi'lllCAL RECORD 



years passetl by until he Ijecam-? the lead- 
ing wholesale and retail merchant of Schuy- 
ler county. When he arrived here he leased 
a business property which he afterward pur- 
chased and about 1898 he erected a hue 
brick block, in which he was doing business 
at the time of his tleath, and in it his widow 
now maintains her home. Mr. Clark's bus- 
iness methods were such as neither recjuired 
nor sought disguise, but would bear the 
most rigid in\estigation and scrutiny. He 
gained his success along legitimate lines of 
trade, and through his perseverance, energy 
and sound business judgment he won pros- 
perity. 

yiv. Clark was first marrietl in the year 
1875 to Miss Nora Powers, who died about 
eight years later. They were the parents 
of three children : Ada, a graduate of the 
business college at Elniira, was married in 
Watkins on the 22d of September, 1902. to 
Michael llaubuer, of Clifton Springs, Xew 
■^'ork. Helen was marrietl on Thanksgiv- 
ing day of 1900 to William Rooney, a resi- 
dent of Watkins, and they have one child. 
Thomas Clark. Francis, the youngest chikl, 
of the lirst marriage, is about twenty years 
of age and is now learning the ;nachinist's 
trade. On the 14th of September, 1888, 
in the town of Watkins, Mr. Clark was 
again married, his second imion being with 
Miss Ella Maloney, who v.as born in the 
town of Di.x, Schuyler county, and is a 
daughter of Richard and Bridget (Hicky) 
Maloney. This union was blessed with one 
child, Alice, who was born in Watkins. 

Mr. Clark was an active worker in the 
ranks of the Democratic party but was 
never an ofilice seeker. He and his wil'e 
were reared in the faith and were communi- 
cants of the Catholic church. He died 
August I r, 1900. and was laid to rest in the 



Catholic cemetery of Watkins. In his life 
there was nuicli that was commendable and 
worthy of enudation. His strong force of 
character enabled him to overcome the diffi- 
culties with which he was surrounded in his 
business career, and to work his way up- 
ward until he stood among the most suc- 
cessful men of his adopted county. 



COLONEL JOHN MAGEE. 

An enumeration of those men of the 
present genei'ation who have won honor and 
public recognition for themselves and at the 
same time ha\'e honored the state to which 
they belong, would incomplete were their 
failure to make prominent reference to the 
one whose name initiates this paragraph, 
His business interests have been of a most 
imjjortant and extensi\e character, and his 
marked enterprise and extensive control of 
industrial and commercial interests have 
made him a le.'iding factor in the Empire 
state and one whose intluence is felt even be- 
yond its borders. He has been and is dis- 
tinctively a man of affairs and one w ho has 
wielded a wide influence. .A strong niental- 
il\', an in\incil)le courage, a most determined 
individualit\' have so entered into his make- 
up as to render him a natural leader of men 
and a director of opinion. It is true that he 
became interested in a business already es- 
tablished, but in controlling and enlarging 
l)usiness enterprises many a man of even 
considerable resolute purpose, courage and 
industry has failed. Colonel Magee has 
demionstrated the trulh of the ma.xim that 
success is not the result of genius but the 
outcome of a clear ju<lgment and experience. 

On the 2(1 of December. 1867. in the 



THE BIOGRAl'HiCAL RECORD 



239 



town oi W'.itkins. Mr. Magee was burn, liis 
parents being Cieneral (ieorge and Juiinia 
S. (Stothoff) Magee. His distinguislied fa- 
tber is mentioned on another p'lge of tliis 
\ohinie. At the usual age Colonel Magee 
entered the public schools, where he jiursued 
his studies for a number of years, and for 
four years was a student at Lawrenceville, 
Xew Jersey, afterward completing his edu- 
caii^>n in lun-ope under the direction of a 
private tutor. After his return to America 
he became identified with the l'"all Brook 
Coal Company and for one year was located 
in Antrim, I'ennsvlvania. .Mthongh the son 
of a wealthy father he did not choose to be- 
come a simple looker-on in the business 
world hut desired to become a factor in con- 
trolling extensive business interests and to 
this end he closely applied himself to the 
mastery of the business in all of its branches, 
both in principle and detail. Removing from 
Antrim to Corning, New York, he was there 
identified with the shops of the l""all Brook 
Railway Company for a year aiid later he 
spent several months in the Schenectady 
Locomotive \\'orks, of Schenectady, Xev.- 
York, returning thence to Corning. lie 
famaliarized himself with the work of the 
many offices of the fall lirook Railway 
Coiupany, gaining a practical knowledge of 
all branches of railroading and of the coal 
and coke business which was operated by his 
father, General Magee. Sul)sef|uently the 
son was made secretary of the Fall Brook 
Railway and acted in that capacity until his 
father's death in 1897, when he was chosen 
to the presidency of the Fall Brook Coal 
Company, the Morris Run Coal Company, 
the Chest Creek Land and Improvement 
Company, and the Tioga Im])rovement Com- 
pany, oi which he was also a director, llis 
pievious thorough training well fitted him 
14 



to take up the onerous and responsible duties 
which now devolve upon him. With broad 
foresight he looked over the business field, 
recognized its possibilities and became an ac- 
tive factor in directing the work. He was; 
also elected the president of the Syracuse, 
Geneva & Corning Railroad. The extent 
and volume of his business interests indicate 
his marked capaljility and the workings of 
a master mind. He is a director of the 
Knickerbocker Trust Company, of Xew 
York City; the Troy Trust Company, of 
Troy, New York; the Xorlh River Coal & 
Wood Company, the I'hiladelphia Dock and 
Terminal Company; the Elmira Trust Com- 
pany, of ]<'lmira, Xew York; the Clark 
Hoisting & Barge Company; the Beech 
Creek Coal & Coke Company f)f Xew York; 
tlie Pocahontas Collieries Com])any of Poca- 
hontas, Virginia ; and is identified with 
many other business enterprises of broad 
scope and magnitude. 

On the 4th of Xovember, 1891, Colonel 
Magee was unileil in marriage to Miss Flor- 
ence Wetmore Seeley, a daughter of Dr. X. 
K. and Mary (Stewart) Seeley, of Flmira, 
Xew \'ork. He has many social relations, 
being connected with a large number of the 
most intlucntial clubs of the city, of which 
the following is but a partial list: The 
Union, Racquet, Tcimis. Calumet, Midday, 
Jockey, Jekyl Island, Elmira City, Elmira 
Country, Corning City, Corning Country, 
(iene.see N'alley, Watkins City, Ardsley, 
Casino and many other clubs. While Colo- 
nel Magee has never sought political prom-, 
inence he has figured to some extent in ])nblic 
affairs relating to the welfare of the state. In 
1X91 he was appointed state engineer for 
.\'ew ^■o|•k by Governor blower, and later 
resigned that position to accejit the ])ositioii 
it aid <\c camp to Go\crnor Flower, acting in 



2 40 



THE UIUGRAPHICAL RECORD 



tliat capacity for tliree \ears. Colonel 
Alagee stands to-day as one of tlie best 
known men of New York and Pennsylvania, 
and liis influence is felt in business relations 
throughout much of the east. His career has 
ever been such as to warrant the trust and 
confidence of the business world, for he has 
ever conducted all transactions on the strict- 
est principles of honor and integrity. His 
devotion to the public good, is unquestioned 
and arises from a sincere interest in his fel- 
low men. He has a wonderful capacity for 
work and the supervision of the details as 
well as the principles in his extensive busi- 
r.ess affairs. What the world needs is such 
men — men cajjable of managing extensive 
Concerns and C(jn(luctiug business on terms 
that are alike fair to the employer and to the 
employe. His personal characteristics are 
such as made him a social favorite and those 
who meet him in such relation are glad to 
number him as a friend. 



CLARENCE NEWELL ELTJS. 

Clarence Newell Ellis, who is occupying 
the position of station agent of Watkins on 
the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad sys- 
tem, was born October 12. 1864, at Roaring 
Branch, Pennsylvania, and is a son of 
Charles B. and Lucy (Newell) Ellis. The 
father was born in Enfield, Tompkins coun- 
t\, New York, October 26, 1824, was a well 
educated man and had a wide acquaintance 
and reputation as a successful teacher in 
both Lycoming and Tioga counties of Penn- 
sylvania, where he followed his chosen pro- 
fession for many years. Later in life he re- 
tired to a farm in Tioga county, where he 
spelt liis rcmainintr da\-s. 



Mr. Ellis, of this review, was born upon 
that farm and there passed the period of his 
boyhood and youth, accjuiring his education 
in the country schools, his father being his 
teacher a part of the tiiue. At seventeen 
years of age he was himself .|u.".lified for 
teaching and for a year he followed that 
profession. He then entered the telegraph 
office of Roaring Branch in May, 1883, and 
had so thoroughly mastered the business by 
the following September that he was ap- 
pointed station agent at Fields, Pennsyl- 
vania. He worked in various offices and 
from 1885 until 1892 he was serving as 
station agent at Roaring Branch. 

While there Mr. Ellis was united in mar- 
riage on the 24th of October, 1885, to Miss 
I'anny J. Gray, of Newark, New Jersey, and 
unto them was born one daughter, Marion 
v. The wife and mother died in Roaring 
Ihanch aiid Mr. Ellis was again married 
in April. 1888, his second union being with 
Miss Kathryn De Courcy, of that place. 
Two children graced this union : Hazel R. 
and l"".(ina K., the former born in Roaring 
Branch and the latter in Montour Falls, to 
which place Mr. Ellis was transferred in 
1892. There he remained until 1900, when 
he came to \\"atkins, where he has since 
lived. 

Mr. Ellis is independent in his political 
\ icw s. and has never taken any active part in 
in ixilitics. I'>om the age of about twenty- 
two he has been a member of the Methodist 
I-4)iscopal church and while residing at 
Montour I'rdls he served as a member of the 
board of stewards and was superintendent of 
the Sunday-school for several years. In 
Watkins he has al.so served as steward, trus- 
tee and Sunday-school superintendent and 
he is very active in church work, doing 
cvervthing in his ]H)wer to pn)mote the 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



241 



growth of tlie' cliiircli and extend its in- 
tUicuce. In February, 1894, he Ijecanie a 
member of tlie Masonic fraternity at Mon- 
tonr Falls and there lillcd the office of junior 
warden and senior warden. In 1897 he was 
elected master and served also in the years of 
1S98 and 1899, during" wliich time the lodge 
was greatly strengthened in both member- 
shi]) and interest, the lodge room enlarged 
and refurnished and a banquet room com- 
l)letely ef^uipped. On the 2d of July, 1901, 
Mr. Ellis was exalted to the degree of a 
Royal Arch Mason in Watkins Chapter. In 
the years 1901 and 1902 he was honored by 
the grand lodge of the state of \ew York 
with the appointment of district deputy 
giand master of the twenty-ninth district. At 
the last annual convocation of Watkins 
Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, he was elected 
to the highest office in the chapter, that ot 
high priest. Mr. Ellis is also a Knight 
Templar, being a member of St. Omer's 
Commanderv of Elmira. New York. 



JOHX W". TOWXSEXD. 

John W. Townsend. who is an honored 
veteran of the Civil war and upon the b'lttle- 
fields of the south manifested his loyalty 
to the Union, is a representative of one of 
the prominent families of Schuyler county. 
In days of peace he has been e(|ually faith- 
ful to his country and is now regarded as 
one of the leading representatives and 
valued citizens of Schuyler county, making 
his home in North Hector, where he is cap- 
ably filling the office of justice of the ])cace 
and is also engaged in the real estate busi- 
ness. 

lohn W'eslev Townsend was born in 



Hector, Schuyler county, June 11, 1838, 
and is a son of Jeremiah and Belinda (Bai- 
ley) Townsend. The father was a native 
of Delaware and when a young man came 
to New Yt)rk, becomang one of the early 
settlers of Schuyler county. He was a sol- 
dier of the war of 1812 and was taken pri.s- 
oner at Black Rock near Buffalo. He was 
married in Schuyler county to Miss Belinda 
Bailey, a daughter of John Bailey, who came 
here from Connecticut at an early day. 

Our suljject pursued his education in the 
early subscription schools and when he had 
put aside his te.xt books he began learning 
the wagon-maker's trade, which he' fol- 
lowed continuously until after the Civil war 
liroke out. Being unable to content him- 
self longer at home wliile the Union was in 
danger, he offered his .services to the gov- 
ernment, enlisting as one of the boys in blue 
of Companv .\. b'iflielh Regiment of \'ol- 
unteer Engineers. He was mustered in at 
F.lmira as a musician. It was on the 18th 
of September. 1861, and he served contin- 
uous! v until June. iSO^, in the meantime 
being promoted to the rank ot corporal July 
28, 1862. He w'as made sergeant on the 
5th of January. 1863, and on the 22(1 oi Feb- 
ruary, 1864. he re enlisted at Washington. 
1). C.. as sergeant, being mustered out with 
that company on the 13th of June. 1865, 
at Fort Barry. N'irginia. He participated 
in the battle of ^'orktown and those of the 
jieninsular camnaigTi muler General Mc- 
Clellan. He took ])art in tlie battle of 
I'redericksburg under General Burnside, 
December 11. 1862: the battle of Chancel- 
lorsvillc; I'ranklin Crossing, June 5. 1863; 
the Clettysburg campaign: and the engage- 
ment at Harper's berry. After the battle 
of iM-edericksburg a pontoon bridge was 
swung across the Rappahannock ri\er, the 



242 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Union troops beino' on one side, tlie Con- 
federates on the other. One night at a 
council of the Union officers it was decided 
to send the Fiftietli New York Infantry to 
take this bridge, but before sending the 
whole regiment it \\as deemed advisable to 
send a dozen meii as scouts into the hollow 
where the bridge spanned the stream to see 
what was to be seen, and Mr. Townsend 
Avas one of the brave men wlio volunteered. 
Before the battle of Frederickslnirg Cap- 
tain Perkins had been shot and killed on the 
bridge, and our subject was one of the four 
chosen for the daring undertaking of bring- 
ing the body to the shore. He was with the 
comjjany and regiment in all of their 
campaigns, and was ever a faithful soldier, 
always found at his post of duty, whether 
in the thickest of the fight or on the lonely 
picket line. He then returned to Hector, 
where he engaged in wagoii-making. fol- 
lowing that pursuit for many years, but 
for the past twenty years he has devoted 
his attention to the undertaking business, 
and lias the i)atronage of many of the best 
families of this portion of the county. 

Mr. Townsend was united in marriage 
to Miss Sarah Milliman. a daughter of An- 
drew and Cornelia (Henry) .Milliman. 
Tw(i children were born unto them: Bert 
M., who is now living in Philadelphia, 
P'ennsyhania : and Walter J., who makes 
his home in Xew ^'ork City, so that Mr. 
und Mrs. Townscml are aga"in as they were 
when they started out ui)on their married 
life — alone in their own home. 

In religious faith Mr. Townsend is a 
Methodist, belonging to the church at 
North Hector, in which he has .served as 
steward for a number of years. He is a 
stanch Republicin in his political views, un- 
.»;\ver\ing in his .allegiance to the ])arty and 



lie has been honored with a number of lo- 
cal offices. For fifteen years he has held 
the office of justice of the peace and he dis- 
charges his duties without fear or favor, 
his decisions being strictly fair and impar- 
tial. In 1898 he was appointed postmaster 
of North Hector so that he is holding the 
office at the present time. He was also 
appointed justice of the sessions and held 
that office for one year. Socially he is 
identified with Daniel B. Smith Post, No. 
423, G. A. R., of North Hector, and has 
served as officer of the day almost continu- 
ously since the organization of the ])ost. 
Mr. Townsend is a gentleman of genuine 
worth of character and genial manner and 
of marked enterprise. His record as a sol- 
dier, as a private citizen and as a public 
official is above reproach and all who know 
him entertain for him warm regard. B(jth 
he and his wife have a large circle of friends 
in Schuyler county and the hospitality of 
the best homes of North Hector and the 
communitv is extended to them. 



JOHN HALWICK. 

Among the men who have been num- 
bered as \alued and representative citizens of 
Sciiuyler county, and who have now passed 
away, is Jolin llalwick. lie is, however, 
remembered 1)\- many friends because of the 
sterling traits of character which he pos- 
sessed and which endeared him to those with 
whom he came in contact. .\ native son of 
the Empire state, he was lK)rn in Ulster 
county on the JOth of April. \>^2-,. His 
l)arents were also natives of L'lster county, 
while his paternal grandparents were born 
in England, whence they emigrated to 



I 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



243 



America alxnit 1800. sctllin*;- in Ulster 
county. 

At the usual -.ige John lialwick entered 
the puljlic scli(X)ls. there Id ac(|uire the edu- 
cation which would fit him for life's practi- 
cal and responsible duties. \\'hen fourteen 
years of age he left school and began farm- 
ing, continuously following that pursuit 
until after the beginning of the Civil war, 
when, feeling that his duty was to his coun- 
try, be offered his services to the government 
and joined the army in 1862. He ser\e(l for 
three years as a memlier of the One Hundred 
and Seventh Regiment of Xew York \'iil- 
unteers, under the command of Captain Slo- 
cum. of Eimira, the regiment being attaciied 
to the command of (General Mulford. He 
took part in a number of important engage- 
ments and was ever found as a faithful and 
loyal soldier, facing danger and death in 
defense of the Union. .At the close of the 
v.ar lie received an iidndrable discharge an<l 
at once returned to his home and family. 

Mr. Halwick had been married on the 
loth of January, 1855, to Miss Mary .Ann 
Turner, who was born in Xew Boston, Xew 
"^i'ork, on the ist of December, 1834. Her 
father, Samuel Turner, and his wife Eliza- 
betli, c,i:'ne from England to .\mcrica at a 
very early day and took up their abode in 
the Emi)ire state. Our subject and his wife 
began keeping house in Croton, and for for- 
ty-se-icn years Mrs. Halwick has resided in 
the bouse which she now occupies. Their 
marriage was blessed with two children. 
Maria, the elder, became the wife of Joshua 
Hoxie, on the 8th of February, 1870, and 
they began their domestic life in Croton, 
where for eighteen years Mr. Hoxie fol- 
lowed farming. On the expiration of that 
period be removed with bis family to near 
Odessa where llicv imw reside. .\1)l)ie Hal- 



wick, the younger dangbter. became the wife 
of Jake Williams and their home is in Hur- 
('ett. New York. 

After his return from the war Mr. Hal- 
wick resumed farming, which he followed 
continuously until his death, which oc- 
curred in the year 1895. He lived a quiet, 
unassuming life, yet he commanded the re- 
spect and confidence of his fellow men by 
reason of his genuine worth, his industry 
and his fidelity ti) dulx'. He was therefore 
a valued citizen to the community and his 
death was deeply mourned by many friends 
as well as by his immediate family. 



OLIN TRACY NYE. 

The career of Olin Tracy Nye has l)een 
an honor to the state which has honored 
him. Although but thirty years of age, he 
is regarded as one of the leading and intlu- 
ential representatives of the Republican 
party of New York and is equally distin- 
guishefl as a member of the legal fraternity. 
Of strong mentality, of laudable amliition 
and untiring energy, he has risen to promi- 
nence both as a statesman and as a lawyer. 
He has studied closely the questions affect- 
ing the welfare of the commonwealth and 
the nation, and his labors have been directed 
along lines of general jirogress. imjirove- 
nicnt and reform. Schuyler county is 
])roud to nuinl)er him am<ing her native 
sons. 

Mr. X^ye was born near Beaver Dams in 
1873. and is a son of E. M. W. .md M,ir- 
garet (Sharpe) Nye, who are residents of 
W'atkins. The father was born in the town 
of Hector alx)ut 1830 and the mother is 
also a native of this county. 1".. M. \V. 
Nye acquired a common-school education. 



244 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



and Ixjtii he and liis wife were successfully 
engaged in teaching in eary life. After 
his marriage he settled upon a farm in the 
town of Dix, and while devoting his ener- 
gies to agricultural ])ursuits he also hecame 
an active worker in the ranks of the Repub- 
lican |)art\ and liis influence was widely felt 
in its behalf. Elected to the office of jus- 
tice of the ])eace, he served in that capacity 
for about twenty-one years with marked 
capal)iiit\-, his decisions being strictly fair 
and impartial. Taking up the reading of 
law', he became well informed concerning 
the principles of jurisprudence and as a re- 
sult i)f liis stud\' but few of the decisions 
which he rendered were ever reversed. He 
also practiced law and at the present time 
he has an office in the city of Watkins. He 
establish.ed this some years before his re- 
mo\aI to the city, which occurred in 1895. 
While li\ing in the \illage of Cayuta\ille he 
filled the oftice of i)ostmaster and also Hlled 
the same position in Beaver Dams for sev- 
eral years. He is a man of strong char- 
acter, loyal in citizenshi]) and public spir- 
ited in all that pertanis tn the general good, 
and Schuyler county numbers him among its 
valued representatives. Fraternally he is 
connectert with Myrtle Lodge. 1". tV .\. M., 
of Montour I'alls. In his family were nine 
children, eight of whom are still living. Or- 
rin S., who is a graduate of the medical de- 
partment of the Michigan University at Ann 
Arlxir, is now a practicing phvsician of 
Rutland, rennsylvania. Otis H. is en- 
gaged in farming in the town of Di.\. Syl- 
van \'., whose home is in I'uffalo, Xew 
York, is a graduate of the Indianapolis Gen- 
eral Hospital, and was superintendent of 
the hosi)ital of the L'nivcrsity of Pennsyl- 
vania, at Phila(leli)hia, for two years. 
Later sh.e served as superintendent of 



the W'ilco.x private hospital of BufYalo 
and was president of the New York 
State Nur.se's Association. She is now 
engaged in the life insurance business 
at Buffalo, and has been very promi- 
nent in securing legislation for the estab- 
lishment of a uniform system of capability 
before one can take up the business of pro- 
fessional nursing. Jane S.. another sister 
of our subject, is a graduate of the Dundee 
Preparat<iry School and liuffalo Normal 
School. She afterward taught in the fonn- 
er institution, was ])receptress of Starkey 
Seminary <uk1 then became preceptress of 
Keuka College. She is now ccmncctcd with 
the Truant school of BuffaKj. Elizabeth 
B. was graduated at the Indianapolis Gen- 
eral Hos])ital and is now the wife of Dr. 
L. E. A. Storch, of Indianapolis. jnhu 
Hamilton, who is a graduate of the Indi- 
anaj)oIis Medical College, also i)ursued a 
post-graduate course in the Philadelphia 
Medical College, and post-graduate course 
in the eye, ear and diseases of children de- 
partment at Baltimore, and is now a phy- 
sician ill Criimwell, Indiana. Olin T. is 
the next in the family and eighth in order of 
birth. I'lcrtrand \\'., the youngest, is a 
graduate of the Dimdee Pre])aratory School 
Hi Keuka College and (<i the Buffalo Law- 
School, lie IS now located in Buffalo, and 
is practicing his ])rofession, with offices at 
Nos. 402 and 404 Prudentia Building. 

Olin Tracy Nye spent his boyhood days 
upon the home farm and ac(|uired his pre- 
liminar)' education in the district schools. 
At the age of fifteen he entered the Dundee 
Preparatory School, where he was gradu- 
ated on the completion of the three years' 
course. In the meantime he had determined 
to study law, and as a means to this end he 
engaged in teaching schonl for two years. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



245 



He afterward entered the Dpfice of tlie surro- 
gate in the capacity of clerk, remaining there 
lor tliree \ears. under Judge Keeler. In 
1896 he entered tiie All)any Law School, 
and while a student there successfully 
passed the examination wliich admitted him 
to practice at the bar of New York. From 
that time forward he has steatlily risen in 
his profession until he now ranks among 
the cmincnl _\oung lucn connected with the 
legal fraternity of the Empire state. 

In the year of his admission to the bar he 
was nominated by the Republican party in 
convention for the office of district ])rose- 
cuting attorney for Schuyler county, and 
served in that capacity for three years. Be- 
fore the expiration of his term he was nom- 
inated in 1899 for the [xisilion of rejiresen- 
tative to the gener.d assembly, but in that 
year was defeated. The next year, how- 
ever, he again became the party nominee 
and was elected to the legislature, w here he 
has since .served. Already he has been a 
member of the house for two terms, and in 
1902 he was re-nominated by acclama- 
tion for a third term. .Mthough one 
of the younger members in the Xew 
York assembly. Mr. Xye is recognized 
as an active working member and one of 
much inllueuce. lie is now serving on the 
judiciary, ]>ul)lic health and revision com- 
mittees, and is not only an active worker in 
the committee rooui but also upon the floor 
of the house and is lea\ing the impress of 
his indivduality upon much of the legisla- 
tion that has been enacted during his service. 
The Elniira Daily (iazette. in speaking of 
his legislative career, said : "He secured 
the passage of a number of important bills 
of local benefit, and although some were \e- 
toed most of them became laws and all were 



strongly api)roved by bis constituents. 
Among these was the W'atkins Ciien reser- 
vation bill, one amending the village charter 
and |)ro\i(lnig for the election of a village 
])residcut directly, one amending the char- 
ter of Montour b'alls. one ajipropriatiug fif- 
teen thousand dollars ;ind six tlidusand dol- 
lars for improvements in W'alkius harbor 
and (ilen creek, rue permitting fishing (^n 
Seneca lake with seines of two-inch mesh 
and extending the season of seining to cor- 
respond with the open season for trout, one 
]}reventing adulteration ami deception in the 
sale of drugs, and sc\eral other measures of 
equal imixirtance. Mr. Xye won the con- 
fidence and good will of his fellow members 
and was a strong man in the halls of legis- 
lation." 

While Mr. Xye is prominent in ])olilical 
circles he has by no means neglected the 
profession wluch he Itas chosen as a life 
work, and he has already secured a distinct- 
i\ely representati\e clientage. He is re- 
markable among lawyers for the wide re- 
search and provident care with which he 
pre])ares his cases. In no .instance has his 
reading e\er been confined to the limita- 
tions of the question at issue: it has gone 
lieyond and compassed every contingency 
and provided not alone for the expected, but 
for the unexpected, which h.appens in the 
courts c|uite as frecjuently as out of them. 
His logical grasp of facts and ])rincii)les and 
of the law apjilicable to them has been an- 
other potent element in his success, and a re- 
markable clearness of expression, an ade- 
quate and precise diction w hich enables him 
to make others understand not only the 
salient points of his argument but his every 
fine gradation of meaning, may be accounted 
one of his most conspicuous gifts and ac- 



246 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



complishments. Mr. Xvc has liis offices 
in a pleasant suite of rooms on I'ranklin 
street, in Watkins. 

He is a valued member of Cliecjuaga 
Lodge, K. P.. of Montour Falls, wliich he 
joined on its organization. He has passed all 
of the chairs of the local lodge and has taken 
the (irand (Orient degree at Elmira. In 1893 
he became a member of Chequaga Tribe of 
Red Men in \\'atkins. and at the present 
time is the great senicjr sagamore of the 
state and is in line for the highest office of 
the order. He also belongs to Canadasaga 
Lodge, I. O. O. F.. at Watkins. Pcrhajis 
no better sun.nmarv of his character can be 
given than that which appeared in an edi- 
tiirial. as follnws: "Mr. Nye is a man 
among men and his cordial greeting to all 
and generous trails have given him a strong 
personal following all over Schuyler comity. 
He has alread}- achiexcd the highest success 
and iiis many friends anticipate for him an 
even more distinguished career as a tyj^i- 
cal statesman of the Empire state. l>ut Itc 
thai as It may. tlic lion. Olin T. Xye ])os- 
sesses the true metal of a man which will 
stand the trials of adversity as well as shine 
in the hour of success, and so let the hand of 
fate sha])e his career as it will, his future is 
safe and his career will reflect honor u\n<n 
the count\- of Schuvler."' 



lOllX 



[•:ro. 



John hero, a well known citizen of \\ at- 
kins, is numbered among the native sons of 
the Empire state, his birth having occurred 
on the 20th of January, 1855, in Hornby. 
His parents were .\bram and Catharine 
(Arnot) Fero. The family is of h'.nglish 
extraction and at an early day was founded 



in .\iuerica, the ancestors of our subject re- 
moving from Orange county. New \'ork, to 
Hornby, Steuljen county. In the district 
schools John h'ero obtained his education 
and on putting aside his te.xt books he fol- 
lowed farming until he was fifteen years of 
age, when, at that time, he located in Wat- 
kins. Here he entered the employ of An- 
drew Stull in the li\ery business, remain- 
ing with him for three years. He was af- 
terward employed by Washington Wilmot 
for two vears and subse(|uently entered the 
service of lion. iJaker, being emi)loyed at 
the hotel and livery barn for three years. 
On the e.\i)iration of that ])eriod he began 
business for himself, securing a hack and 
team, and was for many years a representa- 
tive of the transfer business in Watkins. 
His patronage steadily grew until, owing 
to his capable management and enterprise, 
his business was a ver_\' extensixe and suc- 
cessful one. He kept twenty-four horses 
and had a large hitching shed which would 
accommodate one hundred and fifty teams. 
lie purchased i)ro|)erty and in 1894 erected 
lliereon a large li\ery barn. InU in 1902 he 
sold out to a Mr. I'orbes. At that time he 
was controlling the most extensive business 
in his line in this part of the state. For 
twenty-one years he was in charge of the 
transfer business for the Mountain House. 
/\l the ])reseiU lime Mr. Fero is engaged in 
the cockroach exterminating business and 
has already secured many large annual con- 
tracts, having a preparation that thoroughly 
exterminates waterbugs. He has become 
w ell known not only to the residents of Wat- 
kins, but to many of the visitors to this por- 
tion of the state, and his genial manner, un- 
failing courtesy and sterling worth have 
commanded for him the confidence and re- 
spect of all. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



M7 



In 1877 Mr. l-'cfip was uiiilol in marriage 
to Miss Matilda Kniffen. a daugliter of Fer- 
ris and Louise (Butcher) KnifFen. Two 
children have been born unto tiieni : Stella, 
now the wile of David lloutaling^, of Wat- 
kins; ami Xettic. wiio died at tlie age of 
five years. Mr. I'ero is a Jvcpuljlican in his 
political aftiliations and keeps well informed 
on the issues of the day, although he has 
never sought or desired political office. He 
attends the services of the I'resbxterian 
church. 



M. LA I'AVETTF. WICK HAM. 

More than a century has passed since the 
Wickham family was establi.slied in this 
county, for William Wickham. the grandfa- 
ther of our subject, took up his aliode in the 
town cif 1 lector in \J<)1. l>econiing its first 
settler. He made his way westward from 
Orange county. Xew York, and settled on 
the land nowl owned by nur subject, erect- 
ing a log cabin on what is now the Lake 
road near the i)resent liomc (>f his grand- 
son. .At the rate of ten shillings per acre 
he purchased si.\ hundred and forl\- acres 
from his cousin, George Wickham. who wa- 
an Orange countv banker and also dealt 
in real estate. Jnhn Waldron (l)ctter 
knowti as Deacon Waldron) brought the 
first team into the tow n of I lector — a pair of 
three-year-old steers — which were subse- 
quently i)urchased by William Wickham. 
He then did all the teaming for his neigh- 
bors, who were widely scattered at that 
time, living miles apart. While yoking his 
cattle one day the sta])le dropped from the 
yoke broken, and in order to get it welded he 
was compelled to walk to Elmira. a dis- 
tance of twenty-eight miles, the only i)atb 



being an Intlian trail. That city contained 
the nearest blacksmith shop at that time. 
William Wickham bought fifteen sheep, 
which, he brought from Easton, Pennsyl- 
vania. The.se he usually herded at night. 
but one evening they were not to be found 
and during the night the fiock was entirely 
destroyed by a pack of wolves. .\t that 
time Lidians were fpiite numerous but 
friendly, and had a peach orchard on the 
[■n\nt that extends into the lake about a mile 
north of the Wickham log cabin. It was 
from this orchard that the little village on 
the Lake road directly above derived its 
name of Peach Orchard. 

On coming west William W ickham was 
acconi])anied by bis wife, who bore the 
maiden name of Phebe Rose and was a na- 
li\e of Long Islan<l. They became the par- 
ents of se\en children : Esther, who re- 
mained in Orange county. Xew N'ork ; Fan- 
nie, Phebe and Sanuiel, who w'ent to Ohio; 
William, Jr., the father of our subject; 
Mary; and Clark. The last three always re- 
mained in Schuyler countw living on ad- 
joining farms. The father of this family 
was drowned in the iidet of Watkins in Xo- 
\ember, i7C)9, at the age of fifty-two years, 
and his was the first death in Jhe town. 
His widow remained in the wilderness and 
paid for the farm by the proceeds which 
she realized from raising cattle and driv- 
ing them to market at Easton. Pennsylvania. 
The nearest settlers to the |)ioneer home of 
tlie Wickham family were near Lodi, but the 
Lixingston family came soon afterward 
and settled in the same portion of the coun- 
ty. Then came the Jackson family, who 
were also from Orange county. 

L'pon the home t'.irm Willi.im W ickham, 
Jr., the father of our subject, was reare<l 
;uid he assisted in the arduous task of <le- 



248 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



veloping- the wild land ami transforming it 
into productive fields, 'riiroughoiit his en- 
tire life he carried on agricultural pursuits. 
He was the last survivor of his father's 
famil}-, passing away at the age of eighty 
years. In his family were thirteen children, 
of whom M. La Fayette is the youngest. 
There are three daughters still living. Mrs. 
Catherine Dunham. Mrs. Esther Howell and 
Mrs. Ann Duuhani. all residents of tlie 
town lit Hector. 

M. La Fayette W'ickhum was educated 
in the early subscription and district schools 
and in an academy at ("imton, .\ew York, 
acquiring a good education for that time. 
Before he attained his majorit\- he was en- 
gaged in teaching school in Niagara county, 
New York, and also in the town of Hector. 
\\nien this work was com])leted he turned 
his attention to farming and has developed 
his land into one of the finest farms of the 
countv. He now has in his possession si.x- 
ty-eight acres of the old original tract of an 
entire section which belonged to his grand- 
father. William W'ickham. 

Mr. W'ickham, of this review, was born 
on the 13th of .\ugu<t. 1836, and when 
al)out twenty-nine years of age was mar- 
ried. It was on the 17th of January, 1866. 
that he led. to the marriage altar Miss Pruda 
A. Frway. a daughter of Benjamin and 
Mary (Dunham) F.rway. Tlie lady was 
born in Steuben county. New York, and 
they became tlie parents of twelve children : 
Mary F.. now the wife of W'ilmer La Fe- 
ver, a resident of Corning. Xew York ; 
Cassic D.. the wife of Frank Lowe, a farm- 
er living a mile and a half cast of North 
Hector: Carrie, the wife of E. D. Holden, 
whose home is in Boston. Massachusetts; 
TIarry. who is living in Boston, where he 
is employed as an assistant in electrical 



engineering- Harriet, the wife of Clautle L. 
Carr. a resident of Knoxville. Pennsylvania ; 
Edith, at home: Benjamin and Randolph, 
who are also with their parents: one who 
died in infancy: Frances Augusta, who died 
at the age of two years: George G.. who 
died at the age of ten months: and Ira. who 
de])arted this life when but a year old. 

In his religious views Mr. W'ickham is 
;i .Methodist, .attending the ser\-ices of the 
church. Politically he is inde])endent. su])- 
porting the men and measures that he be- 
lieves are for the best good of the country, 
community, state ;md nation, without re- 
gard to partv afilTliations. He owns one of 
the finest f.arms of Schuyler county, having 
a beautiful place which commands a splen- 
did \iew of Seneca lake and the surround- 
ing country for many miles. He has al- 
wavs lived a (|uiet. retired, unostentatious 
life, lint is one of the best known men of 
the count\ and is considered one of the influ- 
ential fruit growers of this portion of the 
slate. 



DL'.\( \.\ S. M AC.EE. 

A representative of one of the most prom- 
inent families of Schuyler county, the life 
record of Duncan S. Magee rellected addi- 
tional credit upon the unlannshed f.amily 
name. lie was born in P>alh, .\ew N'ork. 
November 21, 1831. and died in W'atkins 
'i\Iay 8. 1869. at the early age of thirty-eight 
years. His parents were lohn and \r;i- 
bella (Stuart) Magee. In the schools of 
his native place he accpiired a good educa- 
tion and while still a youth engaged in bus- 
iness with his father, who was then controll- 
ing many extensive and important enter- 
jirises. .Mthough his father wris a man of 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



249 



wealtli. the son did nut iVel that lie coukl 
enter the olVice as a mere looker-on, but be- 
came a valuable assistant, familiarizing him- 
self with the \arious departmeiUs of tlie 
business and proving capable in the con- 
trol of its branches. In tlie i^nrchase and 
iniprovemciit nf the lilnsshiiri;' ivaihuad he 
took a leading' pari and was also especially 
active in the purchase an<l dc\eloi)nicnt of 
the coal mines of Tioga county. Pennsyl- 
vania, which suhseciuently became one of 
the most important of the interests con- 
trolled by his father. The opening of the 
]-"all I'rook mines in \i>y) was hrgcly the 
result of his business sagacity and foresight, 
as was also the introductions and subsequent 
extensive use of the celebrated Blossburg 
coal. A large market was created for this 
product and the cnterjirise of Duncan Magee 
enabled hiin to snpi)ly this. 

When twenty-two years of age Mr. Ma- 
gee was united in marriage to Catherine E. 
Gansevoort, a daughter of Dr. Ten Eyck 
Gansevoort. I'uto them were born two 
children: .\rabella S.. now the wife of .\1- 
frcd L. Edwards of New ^'ork : and Helen 
G., the wife of Lewis Edwards, of New 
York city, .\fter his marriage Mr. Magee 
resided for a time in Coming, Xew York. 
but later removed to Watkins, wliere in con- 
junction with his fatlier's interests he pur- 
sued an active and successful career until his 
death. lie doubtle.ss inherited from his 
father the marked ability he displayed in 
grasjjing and executing plans of great mag- 
nitude. He entered u|)on no project with- 
out duly weighing in his nn'nd the ditificulties 
presented, but once having decided u\nm a 
plan of action he threw his whole energies 
into it and rarely, if ever, failed of success. 
He possessed bn.ail and unselfish views and 
constantly bore in mind the ])ublic weal. 



even in enteqiriscs he conducted for his per- 
sonal gain. The remarkable hold he had 
upon the affection and esteem of his neigh- 
bors was tlue to qualities of heart as well as 
head for he was uniformly kind-hearted and 
generous and was the possessor of many 
other noble trails of character. 

I'or several years Mr. Magee was a 
member of the Democratic state committee 
and prominent in the councils of that ])art\. 
To few ha ; it been given to accomplish so 
much in so brief a career and the premature 
termination of his life was justly regard 
with genuine sorrow in the comnninity 
which his energy and abilitv had done so 
iviuch to develop. 



IS.\AC E. DOTY 



Isaac E. Dot\' has taken advantage of 
the excellent o|)])()rtunitics which Schuyler 
county affords for the raising of grain, vege- 
tables and fruit. Its rich lands are very 
])roductive and it is one of. the garden spots 
of the great Empire state. Oiir subject is 
engaged in the production of vegetables for 
the city markets and in his business he is 
!neeling with very creditable and well mer- 
ited success. 

Mr. Doty was born in the town of Cay- 
ma. Schuyler county. Xew ^'ork. then 
'!'om])kins county, on the i ith of I'ebruary, 
1S36. His parents. Mr. and Mrs. Edward 
Doty, came from Dryden. Xew York, anil 
.settled in Catlin in a very early day. The 
father was a blacksmith by trade and fol- 
lowed that pursuit in eastern Xew York for 
sixteen years. On the expiration of that 
period he removed to Cayuta, where he 
made his home for ,1 (inarter of a centurv. 



2 to 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



He next located in Ha\ana, Xew York, 
where he yet carries on farming and is ac- 
counted one of the leading and enterprising 
residents of that locality. His children are 
Nathaniel, John. Mary, Isaac and Elizabeth. 
Of this number John and Isaac are the only 
ones now living. The former resides in the 
town of Candor, Tioga county, Xew York, 
and is engaged in hunting. Early in the 
spring he goes to the woods, where he car- 
ries on his work as a hunter until the return 
of winter makes further labor in that direc- 
tion impossible. He wedded ^Matilda Mc- 
Carthy and unto them have been born four 
children : Mary, Loraine. Frank and Ed- 
ward. 

In taking up the personal history of Mr. 
Doty, whose name introduces this review, 
we present to our readers the life record of 
one who is widely and favorably known in 
Sclunlcr county, where his entire life has 
been passed. At the usual age he entere 1 
the public schools, acquiring a common- 
school education and when seventeen years 
of age he entered upon his business career. 
He began farming and has fi^llowed various 
other pursuits, although the greater part of 
his attention has been devoted to agricul- 
ture. In 1862 he sought a companion and 
helpmate for life's journey and in that year 
was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth 
Carey. Her father, .\lanson Carey, had mar- 
ried Margaret Henderson and their chil- 
dren were: Elizabeth, Ellen, Xettie, Fran- 
ces, William and George. In 187J Mr. 
Doty was called upon to niorun llie loss of 
his first wife, who died in that year leaving 
two children. He afterward married Miss 
Ellen Carey of the town of Catharine, their 
wedding being celebrated in 1877. They 
have one child. Margaret, who is still under 
the parent.'d roof. Having always lived in 



Schuyler county. Mr. Doty has a wide ac- 
quaintance here with whom he has Ijeen 
Ijrought in contact through Ixith business 
and social relations. He is know as a man 
of genuine worth, trustworthy in his trade 
transactions and deserving the esteem of his 
fellow men, because of his fidelity to duty 
in evcrv relation of life. 



AMO.^ P.F. ARDSLEE. 

Amos Beardslee. who follows farming in 
Schuyler county, was born in the town of 
Xewfield in 1841. and acquired a common- 
school education. He put aside his text- 
books at the age of fifteen to take his place 
in the business world, and throughout the 
greater part of his life he has carried on 
agricultural pursuits. After the Civil war 
broke out he left the plow and shouldered 
the mu.sket in defense of his country, en- 
listing on the 13th of June, 1862. He was 
assigned to the One Hundred and Thirty- 
seventh Xew \'ork \'olunteer Infantry and 
participated in many important battles 
which had marked effect in winning the 
splendid victories of the north. He re- 
luained in the army for three years and 
ele\en days, and was never in the hospital 
during all that time. He was one of the 
first men to plant the American flag on the 
top of Lookout Mountain and was always 
found at his post of duty, whether it led 
liim into the thickest of the fight or caused 
him to stand as a picket in the lonely hours 
of the night. He was in the battles of 
Chancellorsville, Virginia, May i, 2. 3. 4, 
1063; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July i, 2, 
3. 1863; W'auhatchie. Tennessee, October 
20. 1863; Lookout Mountain. Tennessee, 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL KECURU 



251 



November 24. 1863; Mission Ridge, Ten- 
nessee, November 25, 1863-, I'ea Vine 
Creek, (ieorgia, November 26, 1863; Ring- 
gold, (ieorgia. Xoveml)er 2~. 1863; Resaca, 
Georgia. May 14. 15, 1864: Xewliope 
Cliurch. (ieorgia. May 25. 26. 1864; Lost 
Monntain. Georgia. June 13. 14. 1864; Pine 
Knob, Georgia. June 15. 1864; Moses 
Creek, (ieorgia, June 17. 1864: Kulp's 
Farm, (ieorgia. June 12, 1864; Kenesaw 
Mountain. Georgia. June 2~. 1864: Peacli 
Tree Creek, Georgia. July 20. i8()4: siege 
of Atlanta. Cieorgia. July 22 to September 
2, 1864; siege of Savannah. December loth 
to December 21, 1864; and South Edisoe 
river. South Carolina. February 12. 1865. 

After his return home Mr. IJeardslec 
resumed blacksmithiug. which he has fol- 
lowed since the age of thirteen years. In 
the year 1872 he was united in marriage to 
>.liss Christine Henderson, who died March 
8, 1899. since which time he has lived alone. 
He has two children, .\nnie and Estella. 
The former married William Young in 
1897. and they reside in New ^'ork city, her 
husband being a prominent and Ijright 
young business man there. The other 
daughter also resides in New \'ork city, 
aufl is a professional nurse, making her 
home with her sister. Mr. Beardslee has 
spent his entire life in Schuyler county and 
has a wide acquaintance, many of those who 
have known him from boyhood being num- 
bered anionc his stanch friends. 



FRE.MOXT COLi':. 



One of the most distinguished members 
of the bar of the Empire state, I'remont 
Cole is alniosl f(|n:dlv well known on the 



northern Pacific coast ami in both sections 
of the country his leadership in political cir- 
cles is recognized. Schuyler county is 
proud to number him among her residents, 
but while he makes W'alkins his head(|uar- 
ters. he is a man of too great talent and abil- 
it\- to belong to one communitx . 

Mr. Cole is yet a young man. 1 le was 
born on the i8th of September. 1856. on a 
farm in the town of Covert, Seneca county, 
a son of Ira H. and Carf)line ( Dennison) 
Cole. Tiie father, who was born in 18 17, 
is still living at the age of eighty-live years 
on the farm on which his birth occurred and 
on which th.e grandfather of our subject had 
settled in the year 1801. Upon the ancestral 
farm I'remont Cole spent the days of his 
boyhood and youth, attending first the dis- 
trict schools and later the Union school of 
I'armersville, then taught by Professor Isaac 
W. Stout, now supervisor of the teachers' 
institutes of the state of New York, .\fter 
completing his education Mr. Cole was em- 
ployed in railway offices for a few months, 
but his ambition was to become a lawyer and 
in April. 1877. he entered the law office of 
Judge Oliver P. Hurd. of W'atkins. under 
whose ilirection he coutimied his reading 
until admitted to the bar in May. 1880. 
Entering upon j^ractice in connection with 
W, L. Norton, the district attorney, under 
the tirm name of Norton & Cole, the pirt- 
nership was continued for about a year, after 
which Mr. Cole was alone until his brother 
was admitted to the bar and joined him in a 
partnership relation that was continued un- 
til 1890. when, attracted by the northwest, 
our subject removed to Seattle, where he 
practiced for five years, lie then estab- 
lished an office in New ^'ork and now h.is 
an extensive i)ractice. reaching across the 
Continent. \\\^ '\< -i illsiiiu-tixcK- rciircs^nt'i- 



>52 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



live clientage, connecting him witli much of 
the important litigation tried in the courts 
of the Empire state. 

In 1888, in Watkins, Mr. Cole marricl 
Miss Charlotte Roberts, a daughter of Cy- 
rus and Frances (Shei^perd) Roberts, both 
of whom belonged to prominent pioneer 
families of the town of Reading. Schuyler 
county. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Cole has been 
born a daughter, Eaith, whose l)irth oc- 
curred in Watkins. 

From the time of attaining his majority 
down to the present Mr. Cole has figured 
in political circles, his leadership in the local 
ranks of the Republican party being fol- 
lowed by prominence in the state organiza- 
tion, nor is his reputation limited by the 
boundaries of New York. Of the questions 
concerning the public welfare, of the domi- 
nant issues before the people and of the con- 
cerns of public policy, he has I)een a close, 
earnest and discriminating student, and as a 
logical, forceful speaker and with natural 
fitness for leadership, he soon became a po 
tent factor in the councils of his party. In 
1884 he was chosen to represent his district 
in tlie general assembly, where he served for 
five successive terms, and in 1888-9 he was 
the speaker of the house. An excellent par- 
liamentarian, a man of profound legal learn- 
ing, and one who placed the good of the 
commonwealth liefore partisanship or per- 
sonal aggrandizement, he proved one of the 
best presiding otVicers the house has ever 
had, and while an active working member 
of the house he secured the passage of a 
numljer of legislative measures of much 
value, which were heartily endorsed by his 
constituents, as shown by the many times 
he was re-elected to the office. In 1894. 
while living in Seattle, he became the candi- 
date of his party for state senator, but ow- 



ing- to the fusion of the Democratic and 
I'opulist forces on the silver issue he was 
defeated by ninety-two votes, being a pro- 
nounced advocate of the gold standard. 
Soon afterward Mr. Cole returned to Wat- 
kins and while making his home here he 
has since engaged in the practice of law in 
the courts of the state, being one of the emi- 
nent members of the New- York bar. 



WILLIAM JOHX TUCKER. 

William John Tucker is well entitled to 
representation in the history of Schuyler 
cfjunty, for he is a citizen of distinction and 
])romincnce who many times has been hon- 
ored with offices of public trust and who in 
the Masonic fraternity has attained to high 
rank and is widely known as a worthy ex- 
emplar of the craft which is based upon 
nuitual heljjfulness and brotherly kindness. 
He is now filling the position of county sher- 
iff and no more worthy incumljent has ever 
held the office. Discharging his duties with- 
out fear or favor, such a man is regarded as 
a bulwark of safety by the law abiding citi- 
zens and is a menace to all evil doers. 

Mr. Tucker was born in the town of Or- 
;ip.ge, Schuyler county, on the I7t!; of Decem- 
1 or. 1853, and is a son of Alonzo and Selec- 
ta (Matthews) Tucker. During his early 
boyhood his parents removed to W'ellsboro. 
Penn.sylvania, and in 1872 the father went 
to Monterey. Xew "^'ork. He served as 
supervi.sor of the town of Orange and was 
elected county superintendent of the poor. 
1 le was a tinner by trade and for many years 
was engaged in the hartlware business but at 
length met with disaster, his store being de- 
stroyed by fire. Widely known as an enter- 



THE UlUGRAl'lllCAL RECORD 



253 



prising', reliable niecliant and as a capable 
official, he commaiuletl the respect and con- 
fidence of bis fcilinv men and at bis deatb. 
wbicb occurred in October, 1888, the com- 
numity felt tbat it bad lust a valued citizen. 
His wife died in I'eljruary. u^oo. Thcs 
were tbe jjarents of ibree children: Will- 
iam J., of this review; Hattie. who is the 
wife of E. \\ Moore, a lousiness man of 
Beaver Dams; and Frank, who is engaged in 
merchandising in Odessa, New York. 

William J. Tucker began his educ ition in 
the district schools of tbe town of Orange 
and afterward coTitinued his studies in 
Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, to which place he 
had accompanied his parents during boy- 
hood. For fourteen years be worked at the 
tinner's trade, having learned tbe business 
under tbe direction of his father, and later 
he went to Savona, where be embarked in 
tbe hardware Inisiness, conducting his anter- 
prise there for some years. On the expira- 
tion of that period be removed to Beiver 
Dams and four years later to Monterey, con- 
tinuing to successfully carry on tbat busi- 
ness until his election to the office of county 
sheriff. As a merchant be studied closely 
the needs and demands of tbe public and l)y 
liis courteous treatment of bis customers, bis 
reasonable prices and bis fair and honest 
dealing be won a liberal patronage. 

Mr. 'i"\icker's worth and ability being 
recognized by his fellow townsmen he has 
been frequently called to public office, and in 
tbe discharge of his official duties he has 
shown kiyalty and public spirit. He is a 
stalwart Republican and keeps well informed 
on the issues of tbe day, and is infie.xible in 
his support of the principles of the party. 
He was first elected town constable and has 
since served as town clerk, constable and 
collector, and cbairm.nn of tbe board of 



supervisors for one year. He was elected 
supervisor by a majority of forty in a Demo- 
cratic township. On tbe expiration tjf his 
first term be was ag:iin nominated, running 
against the man who had been his first o])po- 
!ie;U, and that he received the endorsement 
of tbe public is shown by the fact tbat he 
was once more elected, the second time re- 
ceceiving a majority of twenty-six. De 
Zeng Seaman was his opponent during his 
race for the office of sheriff, and at that elec- 
tion, whicli occurred in 1900, he defeated his 
opponent by a majority of three hundred 
and twenty-seven. He is now serving in 
tbe office in a manner tbat shows tbat the 
trust reposed in him is well placed. He dis- 
plays neither fear nor favor in discharging 
his official duties but stands for law, order 
and justice. 

On tbe 22(1 of June, 18S2, Mr. Tucker 
was unilevl in marriage to Miss Dort)tby 
Moore, ;i daughter of Martin and Catherine 
( Putnam) ]\Ioore, nati\es oi I'ulton county, 
New York. Unto our subject and his wife 
have been bom three chiMren : Ola, who 
is now a student in the schools of Wat- 
kins; I-'rank B., who is also attending 
school ; and Clayton A., a little lad oi four 
summers. 

When but twenty-two years of age Mr. 
Tucker w.is made a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, becoming a member of Orange 
Podge, Xo. 621, F. & .\. M. He passed all 
oi the chairs and served as master in tbat 
lodge. After bis removal to Steuben coun- 
ty. .\e\\ York, be also served as master of 
Savona Podge, Xo. 762. filling tbat position 
with markeil ability until bis return to 
Schuyler county. He raised ft)rty-eigiit 
Masons in four years. He has i)assed all 
of the chairs of Orange Podge and is one of 
the distinguished members of the craft in this 



254 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



portion of the slate. He has also taken tlie 
degrees of tlie cliai)ter and belongs to St. 
Omer's Coniniandery, No. 19, K. T. of EI- 
mira, and to Kalurah Temple, of Bingham- 
ton. Mr. Tucker is likewise connected witli 
Tomoka Lodge, Xo. 196. 1. O. O. I-". He 
is widely and favorably known throughout 
this portion of the .state, his ability well fitt- 
ing him for leadership in political, business 
and fraternal life. The terms progress and 
patriotism niii;ht well be considered the key- 
note of his character, for throughout his 
career he has labored for the improxement 
of every line of business or public interest 
with which he has been associated and at all 
times has been actuated by fidelity to his 
counlrv and welfare. 



HON. JOHX MAGEE. 

Hon. John ^Nlagce, of W'atkins. was 
born near Easton, Xorthampton county, 
I'ennsylvania, September 3. 1794. and died 
in Schuyler county, Xew Viirk. .\pril 5, 
]868. His i)arents, Henry and Sarah ( Mul- 
holland) Magee, in 1794 emigrated from 
County Antrim, Ireland, to America, taking 
up their abode in what was known as the 
Irish settlement in the vicinity of hnston. 
Pennsylvania. Henry Magee was descended 
from an ancient Irish family, one of con- 
siderable note and often mentioned in the 
earlv annals of Ireland. His imntediate 
connections were hii;hl\' rcs])ectablc peo- 
ple, one of them, a first cousin, iieing the 
Rev. William Magee, D. D., a T'rotestant 
archbishop of Dublin, widely known as an 
author. In icSo5 Henry Magee removed 
with his family from Pennsylvania to 
Groveland, Livingston county, Xew "S'ork. 



wliere he successfully engaged in farming 
and was rapidly attaining a competence 
when, through the failure of a neighbor 
whose notes he had endorsed, he was re- 
duced to almost penury. Everything he 
pos.se.ssed was sold by the sheriff. He was 
left without any resources for the support 
of Ill's family, save his own strength and 
energy. Unfortunately, too, his wife died 
in the fall of 1805, and thus he had the train- 
ing of his children in addition to his busi- 
ness cares. In 1838 he removed with his 
f.'imily to Michigan, settling in the vicinity 
of Detroit, then a frontier village. The 
count)' was but sparsely inhabited and 
many difficulties and privations were en- 
dured and dangers were experienced by the 
Magees in their new home. In the early 
part of 1812 Mr. J^Iagee entered the Ameri- 
can army, and in May his son John, though 
not yet eighteen years of age, also enlisted 
for twelve months, in the rifle company of 
Captain A. De Quenebra, which was re- 
cruited at Detroit. His army e.\i)erience 
was a stirring one. The company immedi- 
ately went into active service, had a num- 
ber of skirmishes with hostile Indians and 
took part in the battle of Brownstown, Aug- 
ust 8. and as a part of General Hull's army 
was surrendered to the British on the i6th 
of the .same month. John M;igee remained 
a prisoner on parole initil Jamiary. 1813. 
when he was sent with a body of ca|)tured 
troops at St. Catherine's, Canada West, and 
thence across the country to Fort George. 
In March. 1813. he obtained his release, 
and at once joined the mounted rangers un- 
der command of Alajor Cyrenius Chapin. 
The capture of Forts Erie and (icorge by 
the .\merican army under General Dearborn 
forced the I'.rilish troops to retreat, and 
.scattered their supplies all over the country. 





n^.^ 




THE BlOGRAnilCAL RECORD 



257 



Tlie supplies tlie mounted rangers busied 
themselves in gritliering and found furtlier 
occupation in making numerous foraging 
expeditions between Lake Erie and Lake 
Ontario. ' .At the battle of Beaver Dam, 
near St. Catherine's, in June, 1813, John 
.Magee was again taken prisoner. The irk- 
someness of confinement, coupled witli a 
natural desire for youthful freedom, proved 
more potent than the logic of his command- 
ing oflicer, who attempted to dissuade him 
from trying to regain his freedom. Ob- 
taining possession of a liorse he lost no 
time in mounting and, although discovered, 
set off at full speed across the lines to Fort 
George, followed by a perfect hail of bul- 
lets. On the way his companions were ex- 
cited by the piteous pleadings of a small boy 
who begged to be permitted to ride behind 
him on the horse and takes his chances for 
escape. The poor lad was, however, killed 
by the fire of the sentinels, while young Ma- 
gee escaped with slight injuries, although 
his clothing was pierced in several places by 
the balls, and his horse, wounded, fell un- 
der him just as he gained the .American 
lines. On reaching the fort he reported 
the disaster at P.eaver Dam. .Admiring his 
courage and address, the officer in command 
immediately appointed him a messenger to 
carry dispatches between Fort Niagara and 
Washington and to points along the fron- 
tier. His skill and endurance in perform- 
ing this duty, attended almost constantly 
by hardships and peril, were truly remarka- 
ble. On one occasion, when intrusted with 
dispatches of great importance to carry to 
the war department at Washington, he con- 
tinued in his saddle forty-eight hours, pro- 
curing fresh horses from time to time as 
required until he arrived at Northumber- 
land. Pennsylvania, when, becoming com- 

15 



pletely e.xhausted, he pnicure<l a relialjle 
person to proceed to Washington with the 
papers and to obtain the requisite answers, 
with which, being refreshed by his rest, he 
returned in like speedy manner to head- 
quarters. General Wilkinson, then in com- 
mand, was so astonished at this feat that 
he could scarcely believe it possibly, until 
inspection of the dispatches themselves 
])roved it. His astonishment then gave way 
to admiration and, proceeding at once to his 
military chest, he took therefrom five hun- 
dred dollars in gold, which he presented to 
the young man as tlie only reward in his 
power to give, commensurate with the im- 
portant service he had rendered the army. 
This was a large sum of money for the 
j'oung messenger, and would have given 
him a sjilendid start in life, but his heart 
was so deeply touched by the sufferings of 
the poor widows and children of those who 
had been killed by the Indians that he gave 
them every dollar of it, and left the army 
as he had entered it, with nothing but health, 
strength and intelligence. 

In the spring of 18 16 he Jeft the service 
of the go\ernment and with his brother, 
Jefferson, set out from Buft'alo to Bath, 
Steuben county. New A'ork, traversing the 
wilderness on foot, their only guide a great 
part of the distance being a path designated 
by marked trees. Nothing more advantage- 
ous offering, John began his career in his 
home by cutting wooil for Captain William 
Bull, receiving twenty-five cents per cord 
for his work. He walked tlaily two miles 
to his labor and cut regularly two cords of 
wood a (lay, his only companion being his 
rifle, which he often found good opportunity 
to use, as the wood abounded with game. 
His biographer, the Rev. F. S. Howe, pas- 
tor of the Presbvterian church, in Watkins, 



258 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



New York, alluding to a visit paid to tiiis 
place late in lite by Mr. !Magee, says : "Some 
three years previous to his decease he re- 
quested a friend to accompany him to the 
spot, known as the Deer Lick, from which 
he had cut the entire growth of timber in 
1 81 6, but which he found again covered 
with young trees. 'Here,' he said to his 
friend, 'I cut one hundred cords of wood, 
and hereabouts, at different times, I must 
have shot at least one hundred deer.' " 
Young jNfagee felt keenly the want of edu- 
cation, which the removals and vicissitudes 
of his earlier life had entailed, but, with the 
same degree of resolution which had marked 
e\er\' previous effort of his life, he set to 
work, when just entering manhood, to over- 
come his deficiencies in this respect. The 
religious training given him by his pious 
mother was not without its effect and ren- 
dered it easy for him to lead a quiet, orderly 
life. His only leisure, while engaged in 
chopping, was on Sunday, part of which he 
devoted to attending church, the remainder 
being given to an attempt to gather educa- 
tion from such books as were obtainable. 
In addition to chopping wood, he spent tlie 
time between 1816 and 1818 partly in farm- 
ing with his brother-in-law, Adam Haver- 
liug. at eighteen dollars per month 
partly in the purchase and slaughter of ani- 
mals for the market. In the spring of the 
latter year he married Miss Sarah, daugh- 
ter of Hon. Thomas ]\IcBuniey, then coun- 
ty judge. This lady, who possessed many 
natural endowments, the advantages of a 
thorough education, and such amiable and 
excellent qualities as fitted her to become the 
companion and helper of one who had al- 
ready engaged in such important public du- 
ties, died on the 15th of May, 1828, leav- 
ing no children. 



In the performance of his duties as mar- 
shal ^Ir. !Magee displayed his usual energy 
and developed remarkable powers of mem- 
ory. "It was his practice," says the Rev. 
Howe, "simply to take the nameis of the in- 
habitants, making no record of answers to 
required questions, but carrying them with 
unfailing exactness in his mind, until he 
returned home in the evening, when the 
ready pen of one to whose scholarly abili- 
ties he was often indebted, transferred them 
to the return books." In recognition of 
tlie faithfulness and accuracy of his returns 
he received the public thanks of the local 
authorities, accompanied by a handsome set 
of table silver. In 1S21 he was appointed 
high sheriff in place of Henry Schriver, de- 
ceased, and two years later, the ofiice having 
become elective, was chosen to the sai'ne po- 
sition by the votes of the people and served 
until 1826. His discharge of the duties of 
sheriff was marked by courage, vigilance 
and energy-, and principally by his vigorous 
action a gang of desperadoes who had long 
infested the vicinity of Hornellsville was 
broken up, and one of their number, Doug- 
lass by name, was convicted of murder and 
hanged. While holding this office Mr. Ma- 
gee engaged with Judge Cook and others, of 
Bath, in establishing lines of mail coaches 
between principal towns of southwestern 
New York and Ilarrisburg, Philadelphia, 
Baltimore and Washington. His connection 
with this enterprise strongly impressed him 
with the importance of railroad facilities, 
in the promotion of which he subsequently 
took a conspicuous part. 

Mr. Magee was devotedly attached to 
the Democratic party, and in 1S26 was a 
nominee for congress in his district. Es- 
sentially popular, he won the election by a 
large vote, and, at the conclusion of his term 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



!59 



of ofiice, was re-elected. In congress lie 
was not long in taking a front rank. His 
views on all public questions were character- 
ized by intelligence, good sense, intense love 
of country and a profound belief in rapid 
progress of the nation. On the subject of 
the tariff, then one of the most important 
issues of the day, he took ground in favor 
of a modification of the laws then in force, 
so as to equalize their operation. The sub-, 
ject of internal improvements likewise 
found in him a powerful advocate, and in 
the support of the cause of education he was 
both logical and enthusiastic. President 
yVndrew Jackson, who reposed every con- 
fidence in his judgment, made him his trust- 
ed friend and adviser, frequently consult- 
ing with him upon most important national 
questions. Desiring to have the constant 
benefit of his advice, he offered him the po- 
sition of secretary of state, but this honor 
Mr. Magee felt obliged to decline, owing to 
the deniands of his rapidly extending pri- 
\ate business. An earnest advocate of in- 
tegrity and economy in the administration 
of the government, he was watchful to de- 
tect and denounce all manner of jobbery 
and corruption ; and it was through his un- 
ceasing vigilance in this respect that fraudu- 
lent contracts in the post office department 
were exposed and prevented, the result be- 
ing a large saving to the government. 

On the 22(\ of February, 1831, Mr. Ma- 
gee married Miss Arabella Stuart, at Wash- 
ington. The lady lx)re him ten children, 
six of whom she followed to the grave before 
her own death, which took place in Wat- 
kins ]\Iay 16, 1864. Of those who sur- 
vived her was Duncan S.. who later died: 
George J-. also deceased ; John, who has also 
passed away; and Hebe P., also deceased. 
Mrs. Magee was an earnest member of the 



Presbyterian church, a generous friend to 
the poor, and during her thirty-three years 
of married life the sympathizing confidant 
and intelligent counsellor of her husband. 

In 183 1 Mr. Magee was chosen presi- 
dent of the Steuben County Bank, then just 
organized. He displayed so much aptitude 
for financial affairs and such skill and fidel- 
ity in conducting the business of the bank 
that the directors, by common consent, in- 
trusted him with its entire management, 
and until his death, thirty-five years from 
his acceptance of the presidency, he contin- 
ued in the principal oversight of its inter- 
ests. 

While residing in Bath he cleared and 
cultivated a large farm, and also engaged 
in milling and in the manufacture of wool- 
en goods. He was one of the projectors of 
the New York & Erie Railroad and especial- 
ly active in carrying forward that great en- 
terprise. He was a contractor for the con- 
struction of the road from Binghamton to 
Hornellsville, a distance of one hundred and 
seventeen miles, and from the latter place 
to Genesee, a distance of twenty-six miles; 
and during the early struggles of the stock- 
holders and directors to complete the road 
he was their liberal and judicious co-laborer. 
He was also one of the principal promotors 
of the Cohocton Valley Railroad from Com- 
ing to Buffalo; and the Blossburg & Corn- 
ing Railroad, in which he became interested 
in 185 r, was chiefly indebted to his energetic 
cii-opcration for its completion. In 1859 
he turned liis attention to coal mining and 
gave a great impetus to that industry in 
Tioga county by an extensive purchase of 
coal lands. In the same year he opened the 
mines at Fall Brook. Overcoming obsta- 
cles which to others appeared insurmounta- 
ble, he gratlually developed this work until 



26o 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



it attained such proportions as to demand 
nearly his wliole time ajid attention. The 
village of Fall Brook, laid out under his 
direction, contained at the time of his deatli 
an aggregate of two hundred and fifty 
buildings, and a population of twenty-five 
hundred persons. All the men residing in 
the place were employed in the mining bus- 
iness, or its necessary adjuncts, and, includ- 
ing those at Corning and W'atkins. made an 
aggregate force in Mr. Magee's service of 
about six hundred. 

In 1860 Mr. ]\Iagee removed to ^\'at- 
kins, Schuyler county, a step rendered neces- 
sary by a variety of considerations, principal 
among which was the large increase in his 
mining business. i\t Watkins he displayed 
the same energy and public spirit which had 
marked his residence in Bath. He made 
e.stensive purchases of village property at 
the head of Seneca lake, for the location of 
trestle works, basins, etc., for the delivery 
and shipment of coal ; for the purpose of 
beat building; for a .steam tlounng mill; 
for dwellings for his workmen ; for his own 
residence and other purposes. These im- 
provements demanded a great outlay of 
money and furnished employment to a large 
number of men, and gave the business in- 
terests of the village an impulse from the 
very start, which has since continued and 
which Mr. Magce, always in the most cor- 
dial manner, sought to promote. In a num- 
ber of ways he proved to be a most valuable 
acquisition to Watkins. He was a liberal 
contriinilor to the fund for erecting county 
buildings, and likewise gave liberally to aid 
in the purchase and improvements to the 
cemetery grounds and for ihc imiinnemcnt 
of streets and highways. 

Mr. Magee's adherence to the Democrat- 
ic party lasted throughout his life, although 



his own views occasionally led him to dis- 
sent from some of its measures. During the 
Civil war he A\as conspicuous for his loyalty 
to the national government, and, in a public 
letter, urged his fellow citizens to do the 
same. IJc was also untiring in his efiforts 
to aid the needy families of those who lost 
their lives in defense of the Union. He 
was a liberal benefactor of the cause of edu- 
cation, which he had intention of promot- 
ing in a substantial manner, by founding 
an institution of learning, or by the endow- 
ment of a department of science in some ex- 
isting college, and was actually contemplat- 
ing a large gift to Hamilton College for this 
purpose, when he was stricken down by his 
last illness, an event which also prevented 
his carrying out a frequently expressed de- 
sire to set aside a large sum of money for the 
promotion of religion at large. A monu- 
ment to his interest in religion already ex- 
ists in the First Presbyterian church of Wat- 
kins. a magniificent edifice, erected at a cost 
of upward of sixty thousand dollars, the ex- 
pense of which he bore, and the construction 
of which he personally superintended until 
his infirmities rendered further activity im- 
pos?il)le. .\ handsomely inscribed marble 
tablet, bearing the name of John Magee, 
adorns the front of this edifice and reminds 
the beholder of this noble act of Christian 
liberality. 

.Mr. ^lagee"s last public service was ren- 
dered as a member of the constitutional con- 
vention of 1867. although the precarious 
state of his health prevented his constant at- 
tendance at its sessions. The part he bore 
in its deliberations was marked by his char- 
acteristic regard for public economy, and for 
a wise and honest administration of the af- 
fairs of the state, and his influence as a mem- 
ber was conservative and valuable. In the 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



261 



spring of 1868 his illness assumed a fatal 
character, and on the 5th of April death 
released him from his sufferings. In al- 
most every respect Mr. Magee may be taken 
as a typical American and a representative 
of the great inherent powers of manhood 
to combat successfully every variety of dis- 
advantage, whether natural, artificial or so- 
cial. Avhen living under free institutions. 
His energies, of which abundant proofs have 
already been adduced, were equalled only by 
the imswerving honesty which character- 
ized his whole life. Underlying a nervous 
excitability was a heart easily moved to 
compassion and generous under all circum- 
stances, but particularly so to the helpless 
and to those who manifested their worthi- 
ness by industry, economy and self-reliance. 
Almost his last thought was to intrust a 
large sum of money to a judicious friend for 
the relief of the poor and needy. Promi- 
nent among his Ijequests was the sum of five 
thousand dollars to the American Bible So- 
ciety and a like sum to the American Tract 
Society for the dissemination of the word 
of God, which, from his earliest youth, he 
had ever reerarded with love and reverence. 



WILLIAM V. SMITH. 

The business ability and executive force 
which enable one to control important com- 
mercial or industrial concerns is manifest 
in the career of William Vaughn Smith, 
who is occupying the important position of 
manager of the Seneca Lake Malt House 
and makes his home in Watkins. The re- 
spon.sibiiities which devolve upon him are 
well met and in the performance of his busi- 
ness duties he has displayed marked execu- 
tive abilit}- ;uid keen foresight. 



Mr. Smith was born in the town of Hec- 
tor, Tompkins county, New York, now a 
part of Schuyler county, January 15, 1822, 
his parents being Thomas and Susan (Foot) 
Smitli. The father of our subject was born 
.\ugust 30, 1795, and about 181 5 became a 
resident of Chemung county, rcmoxing 
from Orange county in company with other 
members of the family. He was drafted 
for service in the war of 181 2, Init did not 
reach the front before the cessation of hos- 
lilities. I'our representatives of the Smith 
family were in the Civil war, loyally defend- 
ing the Union cause. With pioneer condi- 
tions and e.xperiences in Schuyler county 
Thomas Smith was very familiar. He as- 
sisted in the arduous task of reclaiming this 
district for the uses of the white man. He 
lived in a log house at a time when all build- 
ings were heated by immense fireplaces, 
stoves having not then come into use. He 
married Miss Susan Foot, who was born 
November 30, 1801. She was of German 
ancestry and her people purchased a thous- 
and acres of land in Chemung county, ar- 
riving there i)rior to the year iSoo. Her 
father was one of the prominent and leading 
pioneers of this portion of the state, and 
Foot's Hill was named in his honor. L'nto 
Mr. and Mrs. Smith were born the follow- 
ing children: Joshua, born b'ebruary ii, 
1818; John F., born February 15, 1820; 
William \'., born January 15. 1822: Dan- 
iel K.. born September 2~. 1823; Hannah, 
born July 4, 1S25; Catherine, born .August 
II, 1827; Jessie S., born March 22, 1829; 
Sylvester, born March 8, 1831; Marcus D., 
born \ovaiilx?r 11. 1832; Eli \\'.. born De- 
cember 28, 1834: Ruby, born October 1, 
1836; Deborah, born July 21. 1838: Charles 
(;., born May 7. 1840; (leorge S.. born May 
7. 1841 : and Phcbe J., born June 30. 1843. 



262 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Four of this family are still living: Syl- 
vester, of Elmira ; George C, of Otsego 
Lake, Michigan; Phebe Jane, of Tacoma, 
Washington ; and \\'illiani V., of this re- 
view. 

William Vaughn Smith, whose name in- 
troduces this sketch, pursued his education 
in the early district schools, which he at- 
tended through the winter months, and in 
the summer seasons he worked upon his fa- 
ther's farm and in the employ of other farm- 
ers of the neighborhood until he was nine- 
teen years of age, when he went into the 
lumber regions of Chemung county, dri\- 
ing a team and hauling logs through the fol- 
lowing winter. He was connected with the 
lumber business altogether for about six 
years, Init not continuously. The second 
season after he went into the lumber woods 
he abandoned the work for a time and in 
1841 took up his abode in Corning, New 
York. Later he went to Blossburg. but in 
the fall he returned to Chemung county and 
again secured employment in the lumber re- 
gions. In the summer of 1846 he floated 
timber from Port Deposit, near the Chesa- 
peake Bay, to New York city. In 1846 
he came to Watkins (then Jefferson) and 
engaged in the grocery business and also in 
boatbuilding on the Chemung canal, follow- 
ing the dual purusuit until 1851. At 
length he sold out, after having built five 
boats. Retaining the possession of one of 
these boats, he began the boating business 
lietween Corning, Elmira and New York- 
city, doing a regular freight business. He 
thus followed the canals from 1843 luitil 
1856. In the latter year he went upon a 
farm and in C(jnnection with the cultivation 
of his land he also engaged in lumbering to 
some extent. In those days be could buy 
the timber u\)<<n an acre of land for five 



dollars. In connection with a partner, Dan- 
iel McClure, be purchased ten acres of tim- 
ber and placetl thereon a number of work- 
men who were engaged in cutting steam- 
boat woocf and also timber for boat build- 
ing, but small prices were paid for the w-ood 
in those days. The business, how^ever, was 
carried on through the winter, and the fol- 
lowing summer Mr. Smith used the tim- 
ber which had been cut, in building boats, 
delivering the wood to the steamboat com- 
panies at Watkins, where he received nine 
shillings per cord. He also carried lumber 
from Corning to Albany at eight dollars per 
thousand in t!ie summer of 1847. In the 
fall of 1850 Mr. Smith arrived in Watkins, 
laid up his boats and purchased a groceiy 
store. .\t this time the Canandaigua & 
Watkins railroad was being budded and he 
furnished supplies for the men. Other en- 
terprises have claimed his attention. He 
dealt in live stock, which he drove across 
the country, that being the only means of 
transferring in those days. .\t that time he 
followed the grocery business for about a 
year, after which he disposed of his store 
and went upon his father-in-law's farm in 
the town of Catharine, Chemung county, 
which he operated lor one season. Return- 
ing then to ^^'atkins he again engaged in the 
grocery trade for eight months, after which 
he resumed boating, which he followed 
until 1856. His next business ven- 
ture was teaming, which he carried ()n for 
a short time in Watkins. In .April, 1858. 
in company with Mr. Ackley, he purchased 
a canal grocery and also began buying grain, 
handling freight and doing canal stabling. 
He was thus in business until \S(m. when 
he sold out. 'i'he following year be em- 
barked in the grain business on Matlison a\- 
cnuc and in the succeeding year became the 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



263 



owner of a warehouse which stood on tlie 
ijroiincl where the malt liouse is now located. 
He conducted his warehouse until 1865, 
when once more he became connected with 
tl)e grocery trade in \Vatkins, carrying on 
his store w ith a fair degree of success for 
live years. He then sold out and became 
liroprictor of another warehouse, which he 
conducted until 1898, wlien he sold out to 
the \\'atkins Salt Company and assumed the 
management of the Seneca Lake Malt 
House, in which capacity he is now serving, 
representing S. K. Nester, of Geneva, the 
largest maister of the state. It will tlius 
be seen that Mr. Smith has been engaged in 
various lines of Inisiness and when he has 
made a change it lias usually been one of 
improvement. The position which he now 
occupies is an important one and for its 
tluties he is well qualified. 

On the 20th of ALarch, 1851, ]\Ir. Smith 
was united in marriage to ]\Iiss Sarah 
Mitchell. Her grandfather, John Mitchell, 
was a Revolutionary soldier who enlisted 
from Orange county and was stationed in 
or around New York city. At one time 
he was wounded there by the Hessians. Her 
jtarents were Jesse and Sally (Lyon) Mitch- 
ell. By her marriage Mrs. Smith has be- 
come the mother of three children : Erie V., 
who resides in the town of Orange, Schuyler 
county; one lliat tlied in infancy; and Lina, 
wlio died at the age of three years and six 
months. 

Politically Mr. Smitii is a Democrat, 
and for several years he was a trustee of the 
corporation of Watkins. He was also 
supervisor of the town of Dix for one term 
and has been constable and police for a num- 
ber of years. Joining the fire department 
he was promoted from one post to another 
and for scvcn xe.u's he served .-is il-^ cliief. 



Mr. Smith is a man worthy of the public 
confidence and regard, for in every position 
of public trust he has been found faithful 
and reliable, discharging his duties with 
promptness and fidelity. In matters of citi- 
zenship he is public spirited and progressive, 
and his aid and co-operation are heartily 
given to all movements and measures for 
th.e welfare of his community. 

Erie V. Smith, the only son of our sub- 
ject, resides on his father's farm of one 
hundred and twenty acres near Monterey, 
in the town of Orange. He married Sarah 
iSurett, a daughter of George Burett, and by 
tliat iniion had one child, Jay V., who died 
at the age of six years. After a short mar- 
ried life of .seven years Mrs. Smith also 
died, and subsequently Erie V. Smith wed- 
ded Emeline Brown, a native of ^Michigan, 
whither he had remoxed after the death of 
his first wife and there engaged in clerking 
\i\ the general store of his uncle in the vil- 
lage of Flushing. By the second marriage 
seven children were born, namely: Ethel, 
who has been reared and educated by her 
grandfather and is a graduate of the Wat- 
kins'high .school; William T. ; Plelen, who 
also lives with her grandfather and is at- 
tending school in W atkins ; Esther ; Lina ; 
Ada ; and f.oren. 



WILLIAM \V.\UGH. 

William W'augh is the owner of one of 
the fine farms of Schuyler county, having a 
tract of four hundred acres of valuable land, 
which he has ])laced under a high state of 
cultivation. Mr. W'augh is one of the 
worthy citizens that Ireland h:is furnished 
to the new world. He was Ixirn in County 
Tvrone, in M;irclt. i.'~!j8, .-i <i.ii nf T,inii>s 



204 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



and Mari,^-iret (Hiigiiey) W'aug-h. He 
spent tlie first eleven years of his life in his 
native country and then with his parents 
crossed the hroad Atlantic to America, the 
family settling in the town of Orange, Steu- 
ben county, now a part of Schuyler coun- 
ty. There the parents remained until called 
to their final rest, the father passing away 
in 1887, \\hile the mother's death occurred 
in 1866. They were the parents of six chil- 
dren : Mary; Betsy, deceased; Margaret; 
William; James; and Jane, who has also 
passed away. 

From the time that he came as a boy to 
the new world William Waugh has always 
resided in this part of the Umpire state. He 
soon liecame thoroughly identified with 
American interests and upon the home farm 
he worked through the period of his boy- 
hood and youth, while in the district schools 
of the neigh1)orhood he acquired his Eng- 
lish education. The occupation to which 
lie was reared he has made his life work and 
in his inidertakings he has prospered. He 
has followed progressive methods and has 
kept in touch with the advancement of the 
time. He not only engages in the raising 
of the cereals best adapted to the soil and 
climate, but he also gives much attention to 
the cultivation of fruit and the annual sales 
from his orchards amount to a considerable 
figure. He has a broad and accurate knowl- 
edge concerning farming and horticulture, 
and, having maile a close .study of the needs 
of different kinds of trees and of grains, he 
is thus enabled to use his land to the best 
advantage. 

In 1855 Mr. W :ingli w.is vnntecl m mar- 
riage to Miss Margaret Hughey, a daughter 
of Joseph and Jane (Hughes) Hughey. 
The lady is a native of the town of Orange 
and has alwavs lived within a few miles of 



her birth place. By her marriage she lias 
become the mother of three children : Frank, 
w ho married Clara Pangburn ; Joseph ; and 
Mary Elizabeth. The family is one well 
known in the community, and the circle of 
tlieir friends is almost co-extensive with the 
circle of their acquaintances. 

Mr. ^^'augh has taken quite an active 
part in political afifairs and is a .stanch advo- 
cate of the Democratic party and its prin- 
ciples. His fellow townsmen recognizing 
his worth and ability have frequently called 
him to public office and he Jias served as 
road commissioner for fnur years. His re- 
ligious faith is indicated by his membership 
in the Presbyterian church and his entire 
life has been in harmony with his profession. 
He represents one of the old families of this 
county and has ever taken a deep and abiding 
interest in the jjrogress and improvement of 
this section of tlie state. All who know him 
esteem him highly for his sterling worth for 
he possesses many excellencies of character. 



JOHN WHITF OGDEX. 

John White Ogden. who is filling the 
position of collector of school taxes for the 
\\'atkins Union school district and is also 
constable for the town of Dix, was Iwrn in 
tlie town of \^'ayne. Steuben county, Oc- 
tober 4. 183:. and when l)ut two years of age 
was taken by his parents, Horace and Mary 
(White) Ogden, to Irelandville, in Reading 
township, where the father engaged in mer- 
cantile'pursuits from 1833 "'iti' 1836. He 
then sold out to William Ilaring and re- 
moved to \\'atkins, A\here he began working 
at his trade of harness-making, which he fol- 
lowed up to the time of his death, residing 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



265 



continuously in \\'atkins, with tlie exception 
of a period of eigliteen months, which he 
passed in ^lillport, where he con(hicted a 
liotel. He then returned to W'atkins and 
once more engaged in the harness business. 
In liis pohtical views he was a Democrat and 
cast his first vote when only eighteen years 
of age. He was elected justice of tlie peace, 
serving for four years and after an interval 
was again chosen to that office. At the time 
of his first term he was elected associate jus- 
ice at Elmira and in 1853 he was postmaster 
of Watkins, serving in that capacity until 
1858. Xo dicision which he ever rendered 
on the liench was ever reversed and his 
course was truly equitable, fair and just. 
He was a member of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows of \\*atkins and in his life 
exemplified the helpful brotherly spirit of 
that fraternity. His death occurred Mav 
12, 1878. ^vhen he \\as about seventy years 
and twelve day of age, for he was born May 
I. 1S08. In his family were two children, 
.one of whom died in infancy, while John 
White of this review is the only survivor of 
the family. 

\\'hen a mere lad John White Ogden 
and his mother accompanied the husband 
and father on a trip to New York city, fur 
at that time Mr. Ogden was engaged in boat- 
ing on the Chemung and Erie canals in Xew 
"\'r)rk, following that business in the '40s. 
When sixteen years of age our subject be- 
came his father's assistant in this business 
and in 1848, in connection with his father, 
he bought a boat and con<lucted this marine 
transportation for about three years. When 
nineteen years of age he began to learn the 
carpenter's trade, which he followed until 
T901, when his official duties claimed bis at- 
tention and energies and he is now serving 
as collector of school taxes for the \\'atkins 



L nion .school district and also as constible 
of the town of Dix. He has suffered some 
injuries while following his trade, for in 
1877, while at work in Mecklenlnirg. the 
scaffolding, upon which he was standing, 
broke and the thigh bone was shattered in 
two places. In June, 1901, he broke the 
ball out of the thigh bone of the other leg. 

In the year 1861 Mr. Ogden removed to 
Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and on the ist 
of October, of that year, he was there mar- 
ried to Miss Josephine B. Haviland, who 
was ]:)orn at Lock Ha\-en, and was a daugh- 
ter of William B. and Sarah (Hunt) Havi- 
land. Her maternal grandfather owned 
the land upon which the town of Lock 
Haven was built. For a time Mr. Ogden 
was engaged in the grocery business, and 
later turned his attention to the marble 
trade, which he followed until his partner 
w ent to the army, when he returned to Wat- 
kins and here again worked at his trade. 
The home of our subject and his wife wns 
blessed with three childrne: William Jud- 
son, born in Lock Haven, September 7, 
1862, is engaged in paperhanging and paint- 
ing in Xew York city; Arthur IL, who was 
born ]\Iarch 13, 1872, was an invalid from 
the age of three years and died October r, 
1902; Mary Helen, born January 9, 1879, 
is now a student in Warner's Business Col- 
lege of Elmira, New York. 

Notwithstanding .some reverses and ob- 
stacles with which he has met in his business 
career, Mr. (Jgden has persevered with 
strong determination and is to-day a self- 
made man, deserving nnich credit for what 
he has accomplished. He votes with the 
Democracy, his first ballot having been cast 
'852. He was elected corporation collector 
and for two years held that oflice, since 
wliich time he has again been called to the 



266 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



position until liis incumbency covers four 
terms. He also served for one term as col- 
lector of the town of Dix, was constable of 
that town for six terms and for a short time 
he filled the' office of deputy sheriff. No 
])ublic trust reposed in him has ever been 
betrayed in the slightest degree. He has 
always been an officer in whom the public 
cold rely, because he is ever faithful to his 
duties, which he discharges with promptness 
and in a systematic manner. 



OLIVER If. WILLI.AMS. 

Among the best known ami most pro- 
minent horticulturists of Schuyler county 
is Oliver Hazzard \\'illiams, the owner of 
the Lake Road Fruit Farm. Few men in 
this portion of the state have done as much 
to advance fruit raising interests as has the 
subject of this review, who by his experi- 
ments and laljors has demonstrated the re- 
sources of the soil and climate for fruit rais- 
ing. His opinions are largely regarded as 
authority on matters of this kind and cer- 
tainly he has raised the stock with assurance 
because of the knowledge which he has 
gained through i)ractical business methods. 

Mr. Williams was burn in Burdett, New 
York, August 17, 1828, and is a son of 
Daniel D. and Anna (Eick) Williams. His 
father was one of the first settlers of this 
portion of the state. He was a native of 
Connecticut and from Xew Jersey he re- 
moved to Xew York in 1816, making the 
journey .icross the country by wagon, ac- 
com])aniel by his wife and three children. 
Taking up his abode in Burdett, he there re- 
maine<l until his death. He married Anna 
Eick, a daucfhtcf <if Tlfilicri Fid,-, wlm w.-i'; 



a soldier of the Revolutionary war and be- 
longed to one of the old families of New 
Jersey. Unto I^Ir. and Mrs. Williams were 
born nine children : Margaret, now de- 
ceased ; Mary Ann ; Solomon and Philander, 
who have passed away; Oliver H., of this 
review; \V'il!iam, Jacob and Clarissa, all of 
whom have departed this life; and Andrew, 
who completes the family. The father died 
in 1S44 and the mother, surviving him for 
many years, passed away about i860. 

Mr. Williams, whose name introduce'^ 
the record, obtained his preliminary educa- 
tion in the early subscription schools near 
his father's home and later he entere;l the 
high school at Peach Orchard. After com- 
pleting his own education he engaged in 
teaching for one term and then turned his 
attention to farming in the town of Hector. 
He has since been identified with this line of 
activity as one of the leading farmer and 
fruit growers of the town. He ha.s made 
all the improvements ujjon his place and its 
neat and thrifty appearance indicates him 
to be a most progressive agriculturist. 
A\ bile to some extent he has engaged in the 
tilling of the soil he has largel)' devoted his 
energies to the raising of fruit of various 
kinds, ha\ing his splendid farm, which is 
one hundred and ten acres in extent, large- 
ly planted to fruit. He has upon his place 
fourteen hundred plum trees, seven hundred 
peach trees and four acres of apples and two 
acres of pears, while along the road there 
have been planted one hundred apple trees. 
His vineyard also Covers twenty-two acres. 
He raises fruits of the best grades and the 
products of the Lake Road Fruit Farm arc 
noted for their quality and flavor and there- 
fore command an e.xcellent sale upon the 
market. 

Oil till' I ith of Tanu.-irv, l,<^;;. Mr. Will- 



I 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



267 



iams was uiiitcil in marriage to Miss Alvira 
Bell, a daiii^fliter of Alexander and Cather- 
ine (Snover) Bell. Unto them were born 
three children : Ella, Dora and Charles O. 
Mrs. Williams died on the 19th of July, 
1S77, and on the 28th of February, 1885, 
^Ir. Williams was again married, his second 
union being with Lucy A. Bell, a sister of 
his first wile. They have an attractive home 
situated near Burdett on the Lake Road 
Fruit Farm and their friends throughout 
the community are many. They attend the 
Presbyterian church and lend their support 
to that denomination. 

yir. Williams has prospered ni his busi- 
ness affairs by reason of his marked energy, 
of his close study of horticulture and his 
thorough luiderstanding of the needs of 
various kinds of trees. He is constantly 
endeavoring to improve the grade of fruit 
raised and his efforts in this direction have 
done much to win for this locality its 
splendid reputation as a fruit raising dis- 
trict. He well deserves his prosperity as 
it has come to him as the direct result of his 

own efforts. 

■» « » 

CHARLES HEXRY HAGER. 

Success is not dependent upon inherit- 
ance, the aid of influential friends or of ad- 
vantageous circumstances. It lies in a man 
and is the utilization of the opportunities 
which surround him. Faithfulness to duty, 
a strict adherence to a fixed purpose in life, 
will do more to advance a man's interest 
than wealth. The successful men of the day 
are they who have planned their own ad- 
vancement and have accomplished it in spite 
of many obstacles and with a certainty. that 
could onlv have been attained throujrh their 



own efforts. Tin's class of men has a worthy 
repesentative in Mr. Hager, who is now en- 
gaged in merchandising in Xorth Hector. 
He was born in the town of Beaver Dams, 
September 14, 1856, and is a son of Henry 
and Emma (Helms) Hager. The Hager 
family is one of the oldest of Schuyler coun- 
t\-, having l>een established here by the 
great-grandfather of our subject who cast 
in his lot with tlie pioneers who were re- 
claiming the district for the uses of the 
white race. The paternal grandfather was 
Free Gift P. Hager, of Logan. 

Fie of whom we write pursued his edu- 
cation in the public schools of Logan, and 
after putting aside his text books entered 
upon his business career as a clerk in the 
store of which he is now proprietor. This 
establishment was then the property of 
Coyle & Sargent, for whom Mr. Hager 
Avorked for three years. On the expiration 
of that period he purchased Mr. Sargent's 
interest, becoming a partner of Mr. Coyle, 
and has since been identified with merchan- 
dising here. In 1891 Mr. Coyle died and 
his interest in the business was purchased by 
Mr. Howard. The firm of Hager & How- 
ard was then formed and the partner.ship was 
maintained for about seven years, when in 
1898 our subject purchased his partner's in- 
terest and has since been alone in business. 
He carries a good and well selected stock of 
general merchandise and his trade is increas- 
ing because of his fair dealing, his reason- 
able prices and his e.-irne>t desire to please 
his customers. 

On the 19th of September. 1883, was 
celebrated the marriage of Mr. Hager and 
Miss Ida M. Close, a daughter of Edwin and 
Mary (Coggin) Close. Three children 
have been born imto them, Mabel Emma, 
Charles Earl and Harold \'ose, all of whom 



268 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



are still with tiieir parents. Socially Mr. 
Hager is connected with the Knights of Pyth- 
ias, of North Hector, his meniljership be- 
ing in Hector Lodge, X'o. 311. He belongs 
to the Methodist Episcopal church, taking 
an active part in its work and contributing 
generously to its support for a quarter of a 
century. He has served as church steward 
for about fifteen years, has been chorister 
and for a number of years has served as 
Sunday-school superintendent. In his po- 
litical views he is an earnest Republican and 
was a delegate to the state convention in 
New York city in 1900. As a business man 
he has been conspicuous among his associ- 
ates, not only for his success but for his 
probity, fairness and honorable methods. 
In everything he has been eminently prac- 
tical and this has been manifest not only in 
his business undertakings, but also in his 
private and social life. 



HORACE J. BALDWIN. 

The lives of few men illustrate more 
clearly the truth of the saying that success 
is not a matter of genius but the outgrowth 
of e.xperience, sound judgment and enter- 
prise. Horace Jerome Baldwin is now liv- 
ing a retired life in the enjoyment of a com- 
fortable competence and is the possessor of 
consideral)le valuable property and yet in 
his early life he had no capital and for many 
years he labored early ami late in order to 
gain a living. Such a life record should 
serve as a source of encouragement to 
others. 

Mr. Baldwin was liorn in Burdett, 
Schuyler county, January 8, 1825, a son of 
Willis and Phcbe (Velsie) Baldwin, who 
removed to W'alkins in the fall before their 



son was three years of age. The paternal 
grandparents were Joseph and Rosanna 
(Melvey) Baldwin, who lived and died in 
Connecticut, the grandfather there carry- 
ing on manufacturing interests and becom- 
ing a wealthy man. Their son Willis was 
born in Bran ford, Connecticut, December 
25, 1758. His wife was twice married, her 
first husband having been William Kinner, 
by whom she had four children. By her 
marriage to Mr. Baldwin she became the 
mother of ten children. The father of our 
subject was a Democrat, but never sought 
ofiice. He held membership in the Masonic 
lodge in Ithaca before the establishment of 
a lodge in Watkins, and he died in the lat- 
ter city, October 14. 1831. His wife sur- 
\ived him until December 17, 1845, when 
she passed away at the age of sixty-se^■en 
years, one month and twenty-nine days. 

In the common schools Mr. Baldwin, of 
this review, obtained his education, but in 
his youth he largely had to assist his mother, 
who was left with the care of a large family 
upon the father's death. When a youth of 
fifteen he began to learn the carpenter's 
trade and was to receive his board and five 
dollars per month the first year, ten dollars 
per month the second year, and fifteen dol- 
lars the third year. Mr, Baldwin was thus 
employed until he attained his majority, and 
tlien determined to engage in other business. 
Knowing that he coul<l ne\er lay up money if 
he only made ten shillings per day. He was 
married in Watkins, January 4, 1846, to 
Miss Caroline C. Latin, who was born in the 
town of V'eteran, Chenumg county, Febru- 
ary 5, 1829, a daughter of Everett and Cur- 
rance' Latin. When a boy Mr. Baldwin 
had been a driver on the canal and this sug- 
gested to him the business which he followed 
for many years after his marriage. He and 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



26^ 



liis bride hjcated at tlie comer of Porter and 
Seventh streets, where tliey are now hving 
and called their place Maplehurst. They 
planted trees, erected substantial buildings 
tiiere, and then set to work to make a good 
living and provide for the evening of life. 
]\Ir. Baldwin purchased a canal boat ami he 
and his wife followed the canal for many 
years, at first from Corning to Albany, 
spending their winters at home. For twen- 
ty-six years ^Nlrs. Baldwin went with !icr 
husband on his trips and proved of great as- 
sistance to hini. They w-ent from Butifaio 
to New York a great deal, and twice made 
trips to Philadelphia. Nearly every year 
they would bring home with them some 
orphan child to whom they gave a home, 
having no children of their own, assisting 
in tliis way not only their relatives, but also 
those who were not connected with theui 
through ties of blood. For years Mr. Bald- 
win continued in the navigation transpor- 
tation business, and as time passed he annu- 
ally aflded to his capital until now, having 
gained a handsome competence, he is en- 
abled to I've a retired life and together lie 
and his estimable wife are enjoying life in 
the village where they have so long resided. 
Mr. Baldwin is a Democrat, and has held 
the office of trustee in Watkins for three 
years. He was also poormaster and col- 
lector. Whatever he has accomplished is 
the result of his own labors and the assist- 
ance of his estimable wife. He owns sev- 
eral residences in Watkins, and the Baldwin 
block, erected in 1891, and he has paid about 
eight or nine thousand dollars in security 
debts for others. From his grandmother he 
inherited ten dollars, to which he added 
forty dollars more and then deposited the 
sum in the ?^Ionroe County Savings Bank, 
where it has since remained, so that it now 



amounts to about eight hundred dollars, lie 
certainly deserves great credit for what he 
has accomplished, for he has worked hard 
for it and has ever sustained an unassailable 
reputation for h.onesty and trustworthiness 
in business relations. He has always been 
a strictly tem])erate man, never taking a 
glass of \\hisky or beer in his entire life. 
His wife was one of the first to be confirmed 
by Bishop Co.x in the Episcopal church, 
when it was established in W'atkins, and she 
was also one of the first baptized in tlie Bap- 
tist church on Seneca Lake, after the estab- 
lishment of the congregation there. They 
have long been supporters of the church and 
most earnest in their advocacy of measures 
for the general good. Through a long res- 
itlcncc in Watkins they have been numbered 
among its most worthy and respected citi- 
zens. 

it will be interesting in this connection 
to note something of the family history of 
Mrs. Baldwin, who comes of an ancestry 
honoral)le and distinguished, being a lineal 
descendant on her father's side of the Sharp 
family, which has numbered many eminent 
men of th.e old world and the new. The an- 
cestry is traced back to Thomas Sharp, of 
Bradford, county of York, England, who 
died about 1670. His son. Dr. John Sharp, 
born February 16, 1664, was a man of re- 
markable learning and ability. After re- 
ceiving his Master's degree he took holy 
orders, was graduated in Christ College, of 
Cambridge, in 1667, and was ordained both 
deacon and priest on the same day. In 1681 
King Charles appointed him dean of Nor- 
wich; in 1686 he was appointed chaplain in 
ordinary to James II. and was subsetjuently 
appointed to preach bcf(^)re King William 
HI. In 1680 he was appointed dean of Can- 
terburv, and the same vear became Arch- 



2/0 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



bishop of York, and was iiitruduccd to tlie 
house of lords. For twenty-three years he 
sat in the see of York. His eldest son, John 
Sharp, of Grafton Park, was an accom- 
plished scholar and gentleman, and died 
March 9, 1726. Another son, Thomas 
Sharp, D. D., was eminent for piety, prn- 
dence and great learning, and died in 1758. 
He was archdeacon of Northumljerland. 
liis son, John Sharp, 1). D., also attained 
distinguished honors in the church, while 
another son, Gramilie Sharp, devoted his 
entire life to ameliorating the conditions of 
niankiiid. He worked for the abolition of 
slavery and the slave trade, and upon his 
bust in the council chamber of Guilhall is 
the inscription : "Granville Sharp, to whom 
England owes the glorious verdict of her 
highest court of law, that the slave who sets 
his foot on British ground becomes at that 
instant free." 

Thomas Sharp was the first member of 
the family in America. He was born about 
16S0, and came to America in 1700, settling 
in Stratford, Connecticut, where in 1701 he 
married Lydia Dickinson. He died in 171 2, 
leaving five children. Of these, Thomas 
Sharp, Jr., born in Stratford, March 8, 
1702, married Sarah Crozier, and one of 
their sons was Eliakim Sharp, born in New- 
town, Connecticut, December 5, 1755. He 
married Hester Wetmore, November 25, 
1773, and they were the great-grandparents 
of Mrs. Baldwin. Their daughter, Rutli 
Ann Sharp, I)ecame the wife of Abijah Eatin 
and the mother of Everett Latin, the father 
of ^Irs. Baldwin. He was Ixirn in Con- 
necticut and after coming to New York, was 
married in Chemung county to Currance 
Ijaldwin, who died when Mrs. Baldwin of 
this re\'iew was but nine years of age. Her 
father afterward remo\-ed to Watkins, but 



r\Irs. Baldwin remained in the town of 
X'eteran for a year or two longer, but even- 
tually came to W'atkins, where for many 
years she lias resided, and with her husband, 
shares in the warm regard of many friends 
iiere. 



JOSEPH H. SHULENBURG. 

Joseph H. Shulenburg is one of the 
leading citizens and progressive men of 
W'atkins who has long figiu-ed prominently 
in business affairs, in public life and in fra- 
ternal circles. He is now engaged in man- 
aging the only steam laundry of Watkins 
and is controlling an extensive trade in this 
line. A native of Utica, New York, Mr. 
Shulenburg was born November 18, 1851, 
his parents being Henry A. and Mary E. 
Shulenburg, both of whom are natives of 
Germany and became residents of Utica, 
New York, in 1843, the father following the 
occupation of a ship carpenter. 

In the public schools of his native city of 
Waterloo and of Watkins, Joseph H. Shul- 
enburg, of this review, acquired his educa- 
tion and on starting out upon his business 
career he secured employment in a cigar fac- 
tory and subsequently he worked for differ- 
ent cigar manufacturers, and in 1876 he Ije- 
gan business along that line on his own ac- 
count in Watkins, conducting an enterprise 
here until 1805 with the exception of the 
year 1889, when he took a trip to the north- 
west, spending about twelve months in 
\Vashington and Idaho. In 1895 he sold 
his cigar manufacturing business to Walter 
Isley, in order that he might give his atlen-> 
tion to other business concerns. He had be- 
come a stock-holder in the Glen City laundry 
and at once became its manager, in which 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



271 



capacity he lias since served. This is tii.e 
only laundry in Watkins and is doing a 
llonrishing business, not only having a large 
local patronage but also receiving the sup- 
port of the adjoining territory for many 
miles. Mr. Shulenburg is a capable business 
man and has the respect and confidence of all 
with whom he has been associated. 

In public affairs he has also figured prom- 
inently for a number of years and is ever 
prompt and faithful in the discharge of the 
duties devolving" upon him. In 1887 he 
^vas elected overseer of the poor of the town 
of Dix and held that office for two years, so 
managing the affairs of the institution that 
its expense to the tax holders was decreased 
fifty per cent. In December, 1890, he was 
appointed to the office of county superinten- 
dent of the poor to fill the unexpired term of 
Charles \V. Davis, and during the three suc- 
ceeding terms he was elected to the office 
and succeeded in reducing the expense about 
seventy-live per cent, while the pauperism 
of the county was lessened until from two 
hundred and thirty-four inmates of the poor 
farm the numl^er was decreased to twenty. 
In 1902 Mr. Shulenburg refused to again 
become the candidate for the office. He had 
always been elected on the Republican ticket 
and is regarded as one of the leading mem- 
bers of the party in the locality, having 
been one of its stanch supporters and active 
workers since casting his first presidential 
vote for U. S. Grant in 1873. He is equally 
prominent and honored in fraternal cir- 
cles. In 1879 he became a member of 
Jefferson Lodge, No. 332, F. & A. M., 
cF Watkins, and in the years 1884, 1884 
and 1892 and 1893 he served as its master, 
while in 1886 he attended the session of the 
grand lodge as proxy for L. M. Gano. He 
likewise belongs to W'alklns Chnpler Xo. 



182, R. A. M. He further continued his 
Masonic advancement by beconn'ng a mem- 
ber of St. Omer Commandery, No. 19, K. T., 
of Elmira, New York, and he also belongs to 
Hector Lodge, Xo. 311, K. P., of North 
Hector. 

On the nth of October, 1872, :Mr. Shul- 
enburg was united in marriage to Miss S. 
Elizabeth Freer, a daughter of Henry and 
Myra (Wilson) Freer. They have one 
child, Frances Grace, who is now the wife 
of Charles E. Rogers, a clerk in the Forbes 
clothing store in VVatkins. Mrs. Shulen- 
burg is a native of Lima, Michigan, and 
when about twehe years of age accompanied 
lier parents on their removal to Watkins. 
New York. Ffer father was a native of 
Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Shulenburg 
have one grandchild, Harold E. Rogers. 
Our subject belongs to the Glen City Club 
of Watkins and is one of the representative 
men here. His activity in business has re- 
sulted in due recognition of labor and to- 
day he is numbered among the substantial 
citizens of his commimit)-. His genial man- 
ner, his deference for the opinion of others 
and his upright character have won him 
warm personal regard and the circle of his 
friends is almost co-extensive with the cir- 
cle of his acquaintances. 



IRA CARVER. 



Ira Car\er is a young man and yet he has 
been quite successful in business and has 
shown himself a worthy and enterprising 
citizen, who well deserves to be classed 
among the representative men of Schuyler 
county. He was born in the town of Caton, 
Steuben county, in the year 1872, .md is a 



272 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



son of John Carver, who comes of an old 
English family and was a native of Suffolk, 
England. In early life he left the old world 
and crossed the Atlantic to America, taking 
up his abode in Caton, where he followed the 
butcher's trade for twenty years. In the con- 
duct of his market he met with success, secur- 
ing a liberal patronage, which annually re- 
turned to him a good financial income. He 
married Maggie McXamara, and unto them 
was bom but one child, Ira, whose name in- 
troduces this record. 

At the usual age Ira Carver entered the 
public schools, and therein mastered the 
branches of Enghsh learning which consti- 
tute the curriculum of such institutions. 
After putting aside his text books he worked 
upon the farm for eight years, and then 
learned the blacksmith's trade. He -after- 
ward went to Canisteo, New York, where he 
entered the employ of F. B. Belhron, with 
whom he remained for three years. On the 
expiration of that period he removed to De- 
posit, Delaware count}-, New York,where he 
entered into partnership with John Turner, 
in the establishment of a smithy. This re- 
lation was maintained for two years, on the 
expiration of which period ^Mr. Carver re- 
moved to Elmira, New York, making his 
home there for two years. He next came to 
Montour Falls, and has since been engaged 
in blacksmithing here. He is an expert work- 
n;an, having thoroughly mastered his trade 
in principle and detail, and because of his 
skill and ability combined with his correct 
business principles, he has acquired a large 
and growing trade. He is well known and is 
a popular young man of Montour Falls. In 
his social relations he is a member of Moun- 
tain Lodge, No. 503, 1. O. O. F., of Canisteo, 
and politically is identified with the Republi- 
can party. 



On the 31st of May, 1893, Mr. Carver 
was united in marriage to Miss Anna Ploss, 
and to them has been born one son, Aubrey, 
now seven years of age. Mrs. Carver was 
born in Jasper, Steuben county, New York, 
March 11, 1876, and was educated in the 
public schools of that place. She was reared 
by her maternal grandparents, Simeon H. 
and Ami M. (France) Ploss, whose family 
were early settlers of Jasper, having located 
in that section in pioneer days. They were 
originally from Schoharie county, New 
York. Simeon H. Ploss, who was a farmer 
by occupation, was born in Cherry Valley, 
New York, about 1823, and died May 8, 
1884, while his wife was born in Schoharie, 
in 1825, and died March 28, 1898. Mrs. 
Carver's mother was Nancy E. Ploss, who 
died on the twenty-seventh anniversary of 
her birth, February 7, 1880. She had four 
children : Anna J., now the wife of our sub- 
ject; Emma J., wife of F. C. Laine, of Sara- 
toga, New York; Clarence \V., a resident of 
Montour Falls; and Russell Otis, who died 
at the age of fourteen months. 



HON. \^TLLIAM II. WAIT. 

By the death of this honorable and up- 
right citizen Watkins and Schuyler county 
sustained an irreparable loss and were de- 
pri\ed of the presence of one who had come 
to be looked upon as a guardian, benefactor, 
and friend. Death often removes from our 
midst one whom we can ill afford to spare, 
those whose lives have been all that is ex- 
emplary- of the true and thereby really great 
citizai. Such a citizen was Mr. Wait, whose 
whole career, in a business way, politically 
and socially, served as a model to the young 
and as an inspiration to the aged. He shed 




WM. H. WAIT 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



275 



a brightness around everything witli wliich 
he came in contact and by his usefulness and 
general benevolence he created a memory 
whose perpetuation does not depaid upon 
brick or stone, but upon the spontaneous 
and free-will ofifering of the grateful and 
eirlightened people. Xo citizen did more 
for W'atkins than Mr. Wait. His connec- 
tion with its development and growth and 
with the work of improvement was largely; 
instrumental in placing \\'atkins in the posi- 
tion which it to-day occupies. 

A native of Rensselaer county, Xewi 
"^I'ork. Mr. Wait was born at Hoosic Cor- 
ners, on the 26th of July, 1842. and was a 
son of X^athan and Maria (Bowers) Wait, 
being their only child. The father was a na- 
tive of Seneca county, Xew York, and af-- 
ter removing to Hoosic Corners became an 
extensive manufacturer of cotton goods, ac- 
quiring a very gratifying competence 
through the careful control of his business 
interests. He a,fterward removed to the 
town of Hector, then in Tompkins county, 
tcrking up his abode there in the year 1843. 
He served as justice of the peace for several 
years and was also elected justice of the .ses- 
sions. In his political affiliations he was 
first a Whig and afterward a Republican. 
He gave an earnest support to the principles 
in which he believed. He remained a resi- 
dent of the town of Hector until his death, 
which ocurred on the 23d of October, 1863, 
while his wife, who long survived him, 
I^assed away in 1889. 

William- H. \\'ait was but two years of 
age when his parents removed to Schuyler 
county, and upon the home farm he was 
reared, while his education was acquired 
under the direction of Professor Gilette, in 
his famous old time school at Peach Orch- 
ard. Later he pursued a course of study in 

16 



the Rochester Business College. L'pon 
ka\ing school he returned to the home farm 
and devoted his energy to agricultural pur- 
suits until he was elected county treasurer, 
when he removed to Watkins. In 1881 Iig . 
established the I'armers and Merchants 
Bank, in which he associated with him his 
son George, and in the conduct of the enter- 
prise he was engaged up to the time of his 
death, which occurred on the 13th of Feb- 
ruary, i(jo2. lie made this one of the lead- 
ing financial institutions of the county, 
chielly because of the safe, conservative 
business policy which he inaugurated and 
because of the uniform confidence which was 
reposed in William H. Wait as a man of ir- 
reproachable business integrity. In 1888 
he was again elected county treasurer and 
still higher political honors awaited him, for 
in the year 1891 he was chosen to represent 
his district in the general assembly, whert' 
he served so capably and with such fidelity 
to the interests of his constituents that in 
1892 he was re-elected. As presidential 
elector he represented the twenty-eighth 
district of X'cw York in 18S0 when Garfield 
and Arthur were chosen for the two highest 
executive offices within the gift of the peo- 
ple of the nation. Various local public offices 
were conferred upon Mr. Wait. In 1887 
and 1888 he served as supervisor of the 
town of Dix, W'hile for several years he was 
one of the water and sewer commissioners 
of the village, serving as president of that 
l)oard at the time of his death. The cause 
of education also found in him a warm 
friend and for a number of terms he served 
as a member of the school board, doing 
exerything in his power to raise the stand- 
ard of intellectual development among the 
young of this locality. There was no in- 
terest or movement that gave promise of 



276 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



promoting" the welfare and substantial up- 
building of Watkins and the county that did 
not receive the endorsement and co-opera- 
tion of Mr. W'ait, who became a valued citi- 
zen, his worth to the community being widely 
acknowledged. 

In the year 1872 Mr. W'ait was united in 
marriage to Miss ]Mary E. W'ickham, the 
only child of George C. and Martha Wick- 
ham, of Hector. Theirs was an ideal home 
life, their mutual love and confidence in- 
creasing as the years passed, and the devo- 
tion of the husband and father to the happi- 
ness of the W'ife and children was most no- 
ticeable. He counted no personal sacrifice 
on. his part too great if it would advance the 
welfare of his family. There were five chil- 
dren born of this union, four of whom are 
still living, namely: George C, who is 
president of the Farmers and Merchants 
Bank of Watkins ; Esther W. ; Robert D. ; 
and William B. Upon removing to Wat- 
kins Mr. ^Vait purchased the Magee house 
at the corner of Decatur and Fifth streets 
and there the family are still living. Mrs. 
Wait, a most estimable lady, holds member- 
ship in the Presbyterian church and Mr. 
\\''ait contributed generously to the support 
of the church. He held membership in the 
Masonic fraternity and was a gentleman of 
broad humanitarian spirit, whose region 
was not that of profession but of practice, 
for the poor and needy found in him a 
friend and the distressed a ready sympa- 
thizer, and the principles of an upright man- 
hood were ever manifest in his business and 
social relations. 

The news of no death ever came with a 
greater shock to the people of Watkins 
than that of Hon. William H. Wait, 
who on Saturday evening as he was 
returning from home spoke to friends 



concerning his health, saying that he 
liad never felt better. A few moments 
later he arrived at his own residence and 
while turning to greet a friend who was 
visiting there he fell unconscious to the 
floor, passing away a few moments later, 
the physician pronouncing the cause of his 
death as heart disease. One of the local pa- 
pers said of him : "Personally Mr. Wait 
was held in high esteem by a very large 
circle of friends. Perhaps there was no 
man in our count}- who was better known, 
and from whom advice and assistance were 
more often sought. He was a man of few 
words, always a notably good listener, 
though he could, when he felt strongly on a 
sul)ject, express himself both forcibly and 
Huently. In general, however, he gave 
thoughtful consideration to the subject 
under discussion, viewing it from different 
sides, and the conclusion he came to was 
pretty apt to be correct. He was thus a man 
of good judgment, a conservative, reliable 
man of the right temperament to make a 
safe and successful banker. As such he has 
always enjoyed and merited the confidence 
of the community, and his bank has usually 
been the depository of much public money 
— county, town and school. Mi. Wait al- 
ways gave earnest attention to his civic du- 
ties and to the duties devolving upon him 
as a public ofificial or member of a board, 
and it is not too much to say that no other 
citizen of our county would be more 

missed." 

< « » 

GEORGE C. W.MT. 

George C. Wait is the president of the 
Farmers and ^Merchants Bank of Watkins, 
Xew York, and in the house in which he 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



277 



yet lives he was burn July 4. 1-S74. liis pa- 
rents being William H. and ^lary E. 
(Wickham) Wait. He is their eldest son 
and luuler the parental roof ho spent his 
boyhood tlays, acquiring his education in 
the schools of Watkins. When about sev- 
enteen years of age he began assisting his 
father in the Farmers and Merchants 
Bank, which Mr. Wait, Sr., had established 
ill the year 1881, and from that time down 
to the present the subject of this review has 
been an active factor in the control of the 
institution of which he is now at the head. 
For some time he served as assistant cashier 
of the bank and upon his father's death he 
was chosen by the other members of the 
family to act as its president. The com- 
iTicndable business policy which had been 
instituted at the time of the organization of 
the bank has been maintained under the di- 
rection of George C. Wait, who is a young 
man of excellent business ability and execu- 
tive force, possessing a thorough knowl- 
edge of the banking business, while keen sa- 
gacity and marked energy are numbered 
among the strong points of his character. 

But while Mr. Wait has gained a dis- 
tinctive position in financial circles he is 
also recognized as a leader in the political 
ranks of the Republican party and in 1896, 
following in his father's footsteps, he cast 
his first presidaitial ballot for William Mc- 
Kinley. Even previous to this time, how- 
ever, he had been a student of tlie political 
issues and questions of the day and was able 
t(j maintain his position in argument. He 
has served as a delegate to various conven- 
tions of his party and in IQOO he was elected 
county treasurer of Schuyler county, in 
which capacity he is now serving, the duties 
of the position being discharged with 
promptne^'i. fidelity, method and accuracv. 



When twenty-two years of age he became a 
member of Jefferson Lodge, Xo. 332, F. & 
A. yi., of Watkins, and he now belongs to 
Watkins Chapter, No. 182, R . A. M.; St. 
Omer's Commandery, K. T., of Elniira; 
and Kalurah Temple of the Mystic Shrine 
at Bingliamton, New York. 



TRUMAN G. BEECHER. 

Truman G. Beecher, now deceased, 
whose family resides in Di.K township, near 
]3eaver Dams, Schuyler county, was one of 
the worthy citizens that the Green Moun- 
tain state furnished to New York. His 
l.'irth occurred on the 21st of May, 1831, in 
llinesburg, Chittenden county, Vermont, 
and he represented one of the old families 
of that state, which was probably estab- 
lished there in early colonial days. His 
father, Almon Beecher, was born in Hines- 
bvirg. in 1806, and was reared in the place 
i)f his nativity, after which he married Han- 
nah Baldwin and they became the parents of 
three children : Harmon, Jane S. and Tru- 
man G.. all now deceased. 

A common-school education prepared 
Truman G. Beecher for the practical and 
responsible duties of a business career. He 
continued his studies until eighteen years of 
age, and then started out in life for himself. 
He had been a resident of Schuyler county 
since 1835. Here he followed farming to 
a considerable extent and also engaged in 
speculating in land. He was a man of good 
business aiiility, resourceful and entei-pris- 
ing. an.d his keen discernment cnableil him 
to so place his investments that he accumu- 
lated a gocil property. The farm which his 
widow now owns is pleasantly located near 
licavcr Dams, in Dix township. It has be- 



2/8 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



come very productive under her care and 
supervision antl constitutes one of the most 
valuable tracts of land in that portion of the 
county. 

As a companion and helpmate for life's 
journey, Mr. Beecher chose ^liss Minerva 
Brisco, their marriage being celebrated on 
the 29th of September, 1858. The lady is 
a daughter of Xathan and Clarissa (Van 
Gorder) Brisco. Her father was born in 
Connecticut, September 24, 1796, and on 
the 1st of January, 1824, he married Clar- 
issa \'an Gorder. They became the parents 
of the following named : Roxanna, the eld- 
est, married Charles Brown, who was a 
farmer and died ]\Iay 24, 1901, at an ad- 
vanced age. His widow, however, still lives 
in the town of Veteran, Chemung count}'. 
Isiiac, the second member of the Brisco 
family, is deceased. Clarissa is the wife of 
Erving Hewett, by whom she has three sons, 
Myron H., Frank A. and Charles B., and 
theirs is one of the best homes of Montour 
Falls. Charlotte is the widow of L. H. 
Crandall, who resided in Pine Valley, New 
York, and died in 1893, since which tim^ 
Mrs. Crandall has lived with her son-in-law, 
Harry Worth, in Elmira. Minerva, now 
I\Irs. Beecher, is the ne.xt of the Brisco fam- 
ily. Matilda is the wife of Joel Mallory, a 
resident of Winona, Minnesota. They have 
two children, George and Fred. Xathan 
Brisco has passed away. Rowcna, the 
youngest of the family, is the widow of 
\\'allace Eronson, and since his death she 
has resided in Sullivanville, with her two 
children. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Beecher was 
blessed with five children. Elmer L. was 
married in Beaver Dams, December 10, 
1882, to Miss Libbie Russell, who died in 
1897, and since then he has married Miss 



Ella Russell. They live in Schenectady, Xew 
York. Mark A. married Loretta Terwilli- 
ger, and they also make their home in 
Schenectady, with their two children. Err 
T. and I-'lorence X. Xathan J., the third 
member of the family, is deceased. Clara 
Jane is li\ ing at home with her mother, and 
they have a nice residence in Beaver Dams. 
I'lora Emeline is the wife of W. H. Curtis, 
a resident of X^ew York city, and they have 
one child, Bradley Beecher. 

After a useful and well spent life Mr. 
Beecher passed awa\- March 28, 1888. His 
religious faith was in harmony with the 
teachings of the Universalist church. His 
political support was given the Republican 
party, and he earnestly endorsed its prin- 
ciples. During the years of his residence in 
Schuyler county, he gained a witle acquain- 
tance among the best class of citizens who 
entertained for him warm regard. 



WTLLIAM CRONK. 

William Cronk, of Montour Falls, one 
of the prominent citizens of central Xew 
York, is widely known as the superintend- 
ent of the Cronk Hanger Company. This 
company was incorporated in 1888, with a 
capital of fifty thousand dollars, its officers 
being as follows : C. R. ]^ratt. a member of 
the law ilrm of Pratt & Joery, of Elmira, 
president ; C. F. Carrier, secretary and treas- 
urer; and William Cronk, superintendent. 
'i"he factory of the company is located at 
Montour i-'alls, where a force of about 
eighty skilled workmen are employed. 

The Cronk family is of English extrac- 
tion, and the first to come to America were 
tliree brothers, who located on Long Island. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



279 



From one of these sprang Arnold Cronk, 
our subject's fatlier. who was torn in W'est- 
cliester county. Xew York, and was a son ot 
John Cronk. The latter's father was James 
t ronk, wlio served witli distinction as a cap- 
tain in the Revohitionary war, and who had 
a brother, Jacob, who was killed in the ser- 
vice. Our subject's great-uncle. Jliraia 
Cronk. was a soldier of the war of 181 2, and 
is still li\ing'. having celebrated his one 
hundred and second birthday on the 28th of 
.\pril. igo2. 

When a lad of sixteen years Arnold 
Cronk accompanied a brother, three years 
older than himself, to Seneca county, the 
two making the journey on foot. The 
father of our subject was a man of great 
determination and force of character, and 
after coming to this part of the state workeil 
for a time at whatever he could find to do, 
and finally settled down to farming, which 
vocation he followed through life. He lived 
for several years in Seneca. Schuyler and 
Chemung counties, and at the time of his 
death was three score years and ten. Arnold 
Cronk was one of a family of four sons and 
one daughter. He was married to Miss 
Mary Howell, a native of Xew Jersey, who 
was of German extraction, and lived to be 
seventy-seven years of age. The union was 
blessed by the birth of eleven children of 
whom Henry, Jonathan and Catharine, the 
l.'.tter now the widow of Reswell Wakely, 
live in Montour l-'alls. Abbie is the wife of 
Orrin J. Stone, and resides in Elmira. J';hn 
is a resident of O.sborne, Kansas. William, 
of this sketch, was the seventh in order of 
birth. Xelson and .Mbert are residents of 
Montour I'alls. Mary, now Mrs. Frank 
Smith, n^akes her home at IJinghamton. 
^Varren is living in Horseheads. 

\\'^illiam Cronk was born in the town of 



Dix, this county, May 30, 1837. and was 
there reared to the life of a farmer, in the 
meantime closely pursuing his studies in the 
common schools. On attaining his eight- 
eenth year he was apprenticed to learn the 
carpenter's trade, at which he worked for a 
l^eriod of ten years. About that time he 
abandoned the vocation and engaged in the 
hardware business, conducting a paying en- 
terprise for fourteen years. Mr. Cronk is 
a natural machinist, and in 1885 in a small 
way began the manufacture of the Cronk 
barn door hanger, of which he was the in- 
\entor. The business grew to such propor- 
tions that the present company was incor- 
porated in 1888. He has full charge of the 
mechanical work, and designs and manu- 
factures all the machinery used in turning 
out his numerous inventions. In all his un- 
dertakings it has been his ambition to excel, 
and he has devoted himself with ardor to the 
])roduction of a class of specialties which 
would not only vie in excellence and 
utility with both domestic and imported 
wares, but when once introduced and 
tested, would be preferred .by dealer and 
consumer alike over all other similar 
productions. That he has succeeded in 
tins laudable endeavor there is no longer 
any doubt, as the superiority' attained in the 
manufacture of his inventions is such as to 
have created a ]>ermanent and constantly 
increasing demand from all jiarts of the 
coiuitry. Paying close and undixided at- 
tention to the e.xcellence of their productions 
rather than to the amount of sales or mone- 
tary retinues, the company's trade has stead- 
ily grown from year to year, until they have 
reached a high mark in their industry, of 
which they have every reason to be ])roud. 
Their resources are ample, their facilities for 
rapid and perfect productions are comjilete 



28o 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



and conipreliensive, and the quality of their 
goods can be implicitly relied upon. The 
Cronk Manufacturing Company have re- 
cently made an addition to their factory, and 
now ha\-e a large cutlery department, known 
as the Carrier Cutlery Company, from which 
is liu^ned out an extra cjuality of pocket 
knives. They also handle the new Cronk 
griddle, which is so devised that the heat is 
equally distributed over the eiuire upper 
surface and very desirable results are ob- 
tained in cake baking. One of their best sell- 
ing articles is the sliding door latch with at- 
tachment for lock, also the Queen City six- 
bladed chopping knife, which is made so 
strong and durable as to give satisfaction in 
eveiy respect. The company have for sale 
the patent expansive rubber valve for chain 
puni])s. which was patented in 1886 and of 
which a great numljer have been sold. The 
plier department is one of their most imix)r- 
tant departments, doing the largest business 
of any concern in the United States engaged 
in the manufacture of pliers, and they make 
a large line of trimming shears different 
from those manufactured by any other 
house. Cronk's anti-friction and steel barn 
door hanger is made from heavy steel and 
is so arranged that it will carry the door with 
perfect ease. The double braced steel rail 
is braced so that it will not sag and is by far 
the best and strongest rail in the market. 
The adjustable stay roller is made with 
wrought steel straps and a cast block with a 
slot in it, so that it can be easily adjusted. 
Cronk's inside adjustal)le stay is simple and 
durable, and is nuich better than a cleat 
nailed on the lloor, for it avoids all friction 
and leaves no place for dirt to accumulate. 
The garden rake and garden mattock are 
both articles of superior make and find 
ready markets. During the hard times 



which succeeded the \\'orld's Fair, the 
Cronk Manufacturing Company continued 
to run full force, and even then were not able 
to fill all their orders promptly. They man- 
ufacture Cronk's combination gas pliers, 
pruning shears, hedge shears and wire cut- 
ter and bender. In March, 1898, a dis- 
astrous fire destroyed all their buildings, but 
by the ist of the following July they were 
running again in their own building. 

In i860 Mr. Cronk was united in mar- 
riage to ^liss Mary E. Brink, a native of 
Sclnu'ler county, and the daughter of Sam- 
uel Brink, a prominent resident of this sec- 
tion. To them have been born three chil- 
dren, namely: Elmer L., Edna G. and 
Grace \'. Mr. Cronk is a Republican in 
politics and, although never an office seeker, 
has been an official member of the school 
board for the past twenty-two years, serv- 
ing several years of that time as president. 
He has represented his fellow-townsmen as 
trustee of the village board for many years,, 
and for several years was its president. In 
religious affairs he is one of the valued mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
has been president of the board of trustees. 
Too much cannot be said in praise of the in- 
terest he has taken in the growth and devel- 
opment of the industrial portion of Montour 
I'alls, as during his entire life here he has 
taken an acti\e part in all its progressive 
measures. 



WllJ.l.XM DE ZEXG SEAMAN. 

The prosperity of any comnumity, town 
fir city tlepends u))on its commercial activity, 
its intlustrial interests and its trade relations, 
and therefore the real upbuilders of a town 
are those who stand at the head of its im- 



THE lilUGRAl'HlCAL RECORD 



281 



portant enterprises. Mr. Seaman is a pro- 
gressive, wide-awake business man now 
jictiveiy engaged in the ice trade and in gen- 
eral contracting. He was born in Ontario 
county, New York, March 4, 1836, liis par- 
ents being Orison and Sarah (Kress) Sea- 
man. To the public school system of Wat- 
kins he is indebted for the educational 
privileges he enjoyed, his parents having re- 
moved to this town when he was only ten 
years of age. When his school life was 
ended he began work on the canals, acting as 
a boatman for a quarter of a century. He 
ran away from home in order to do this, 
through a long period he served as a Ixjat- 
man between Buffalo and New York city. 
In the meiintime he was drafted for service 
in the war of the Rebellion, but sent a sub- 
stitute to the front. In 1881, with the cap- 
ital he had acquired through his own energy-, 
diligence and economy, he embarked in bus- 
iness on his own account as a dealer in ice 
in Watkins, and this enterprise has since 
claimed his attention. He has secured a 
good patronage which returns to him a de- 
sirable income. He is also engaged in gen- 
eral contracting here. He owns stone 
quarries and sand pits, and furnishes con- 
tracts for sand and stone used in building 
operations in this portion of the state. He 
is a man of soinid business judgment and 
keen sagacity, and in the control of his af- 
fairs has met very creditable and gratifying 
r-i;ccess. 

On the 4th of March, 1858, Mr. Sea- 
man was united in marriage to Miss Emily, 
M. Beckwith, a daughter of Charles S. and 
Sarah (Foster) Beckwith. They became the 
l,>arents of three children : Carrie Ann, who 
married George Case and is now deceased; 
Lillian, the wife of F. R. Knapp; and Anna 
B., the wife of Fred l.adow. Mrs. Seaman 



was called to her final n.>i .\prii o, iSyi, 
w hen about fifty years of age, her birth hav- 
ing occurred February 20, 1841. On the 
6ih of August, 1893, Mr. Seaman was again 
married, liis second union being with 
l"rances Smith, a daughter of Henry Martin 
and Catherine (Smith) Smith. 

In his religious faith Mr. Seaman is a 
Baptist, attending the .services of that church 
flit hough he is not a member. Politically 
he is a Democrat, and has been honored with 
local offices, having served as trustee of 
A\'atkins for three years, and supervisor of 
the town of Reading for several terms. He 
belongs to \\'atkins Lodge, No. 225, A. O. 
U. W., of Watkins, in which he has filled 
all of the offices, and is now grand master. 
He likewise holds membership with Canada- 
saga Lodge, No. 196, I. O. O. F., of Wat- 
kins, has passed all of the chairs, and in 1899 
served as representative to the grand lodge. 
In political thought and action he has al- 
ways been independent, carrying out his 
honest views without fear or favor. In busi- 
ness he has achieved success through honor- 
able effort, untiring industry and capable 
management, and in private life he has 
gained that warm personal regard which 
arises from true nobility of character, defer- 
ence to the ojiinions of others, kindliness 
and genialit)'. 



LUTHER C. STALE Y. 

The story of the suffering and bravery of 
those whci wore the blue uniform and 
fought for the preservation of the Union, 
now so great and prosperous, can not Ijc told 
too often. It is especially well that those of 
the younger generations should have im- 
pressed upon their minds that the liberty and 



282 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



happiness wliicli they eiijoy freely now was 
purchased for them at an awful price and 
though naught but actual civil war can give 
the picture in its entirety, a faint i'lea of what 
it means can he gained in the perusal of the 
history of those who have experienced the 
horrors of war in many of its worst phases. 
Luther C. Stale\' joined the army as a de- 
fender of the L'nion and made a great sacri- 
fice for its preservation. I'or many years he 
has been unable to engage actively in busi- 
ness, owing to ill health as a result of his mil- 
itary e.xperience. 

Mr. Staley was born on the loth of -\ug- 
ust, 1844, in the town of Dix, Schuyler 
county. His father. Jacob H. Staley, was a 
native of New Jersey, born February 4, 
1796, and in the year 1818 he married Miss 
Estiier Robin.son. They became the parents 
of ten children, of whom (ieorge and I'rad- 
ley are now deceased, while Joseph, the 
fourth member of the family, has also passed 
away. John, the eldest living son, is a resi- 
dent of Ithaca, Xew York, and married Emi- 
line Kane, by whom he had three children, 
Arminda, .\delaide and Taber. Roljert, a 
resident of Xew York, wedded Adeline 
Keene. Luther C. is the ne.xt of the family. 
Margaret is the widow of Robert Helpen 
and resides in Odes.sa, Schuyler county, and 
their children are Robert, John, Ann, Esther, 
Elizabeth and Marilla. After the death of 
Mr. Helpen his widow became the wife of 
-Manson Kendall. Malinda is the wife of 
James McDonald, by whom she has three 
children, Henry, Ella and Isaiah. Jane is the 
wife of John Wade and they have seven chil- 
dren, Mary, Margaret, Martin, Jacob, 
Esther, Radley and Salina. Sallie, the 
youngest member of the Staley family, is the 
wife of Patrick Magee, a resident of Horse- 
heads, Xew York, and their children are 



Esther, Edward, Sarah, Jay, Ida and Philip. 

Reared under the parental roof to habits 
of industry and economy, Luther C. Staley 
has found that the lessons which he learned 
and the habits which he formed have 
been important elements in his success in 
later years. He left school at the age of 
thirteen, and was but eighteen years of age 
when he joined the army, enlisting on the 
23d of August, 1862, under the command of 
Captain Pursonious, of Company G, Fiftieth 
Regiment of Volunteer Engineers. He 
served until the 17th of July, 1865, when the 
war having ended, he received an honorable 
discharge and returned home. On again 
reaching" Schuyler county he took up the 
work of a marine engineer. 

In the year 1 87 1 lie chose as a companion 
and helpmate, for life's journey. Miss Eunice 
.\. Mastin, a daughter of DeWitt and Dor- 
othy (Kniffen) Mastin, who are residents of 
Geneva, Xew York. In their family were 
eight children: Isaac P., the eldest, is mar- 
ried and lives in Cleveland. Ohio, and has 
two children. Sophia J. is tiie wife of Charles 
Du B(jis, of Moreland, Schuyler county, and 
they have two children, Carrie and Burton. 
George D. is married and, with his wife and 
one child, resides in Michigan. Xile F. is a 
resident of Montana, where he is engaged in 
gold mining. Fannie I', makes her home 
in Gaieva, New York, with her brother, 
Daniel. Matthew is deceased. Daniel, be- 
fore mentioned, is the next meir.ber of the 
family. Edith, now deceased, completes the 
record. 

At the time of their marriage, Mr. and 
Mrs. Staley removed to their present home, 
in Dix township, near Moreland, where they 
have since lived. Mr. Staley was connected 
with the .\nchor line for nine years as an en- 
gineer on freighters running between Piuffa- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



2S3 



lo and Toledo, and was also in the service of 
the Erie Railroad for two years on a tug 
running out of Xew York city, and for 
about eighteen years was an engineer on the 
lakes of central Xew York. As the years 
progressed, however, his health failed 
more and more, as the result of his 
army experiences, until now he is unable 
to engage in any ^vork, but the gov- 
ernment grants him a pension as a partial 
recognition of his services, although the na- 
tion owes to him a debt of gratitude that it 
can never repay. He endorses the Republi- 
can part}-, believing that its principles con- 
tain the best elements of good government, 
and his right of franchise is therefore e.xer- 
cisecl in support of its men and measures. 
His religious faith is that of the Methodist 
church, of which he has long been a member. 



JOSIAII n. EX'ERTS. 

Josiah Banker Everts is the official sten- 
ographer of Schuyler county, and through 
the years of his business career has been con- 
nectetl with this profession, in which he has 
attained marked proficiency. He was Ixirn 
in the village of Farmer, Seneca county. Xew 
York, February 25, 1861, a son of Charles 
H. and Eliza A. (Banker) Everts. They re- 
moved to Scliuyler county, locating in Wat- 
kins, when our subject was only almut three 
or four years of age. The son attended the 
public schools of this town and afterward 
continued his education in Starkey Seminary 
tin'ough two terms. fi)llin\ed by study in 
.Alfred C'niversity. in .\ilegany county. 
New York, in which institution he was grad- 
uated with the class of 1885. 

Mr. E\erts then took up the study of law 



with his father, but becoming convinced tiiat 
stenography would prove a more paying pro- 
fession, he abandoned his law course and be- 
gan preparing for shorthand writing. In- 
deed, he had already taken up the study in 
his father's office, and perfecting himself in 
the work he was appointed, in 1887, sten- 
ographer for the Xew York state reforma- 
tory, which position he occupied for two 
years. He held two different positions there, 
receiving si.xty dollars per month after the 
first month. On leaving the reformatory he 
came to Watkins and was appointed an offi- 
cial stenographer for Seneca and Schuyler 
counties, acting in that capacity continuously 
through fifteen years. He also teaches a 
class of shorthand pupils. 

While at the reformatory Mr. Everts was 
married on the 9th of Ma\-, 1887. to Miss 
Mary B. Hardin, of Montour Falls, who 
was I)orn in Jerse>' City, X^ew Jersey, a 
daughter of Elisha C. and Martha (Gould) 
Hardin, the mother a distant relative of Jay 
Gould. In his political \icws Mr. Everts has 
been an earnest Democrat since casting his 
first presidential ballot for Grover Cleve- 
land, and for two years he served as town 
clerk of the town of Dix, while for nine years 
he filled the ofifice of justice of the peace, and 
only two decisions which he rendered at that 
time were ever reversed. A prominent 
Mason and a worthy exemplar of the craft, 
he was raisfed in Jefferson Lodge, F. & .\. 
M., has filled most of its offices and for two 
terms scr\ed as senior warden. He also be- 
longs to Watkins Chapter, Xo. 182, R. .\. 
M., in which he has held several offices, to St. 
Omer's Commandery, Xo. 19, K. T., of El- 
niira, and in the Scottish Rite he has attained 
to the thirty-second degree. He likewise be- 
longs to the Improved Order of Red Men. 
of Watkins, in wliich he has filled all of the 



284 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



chairs, and he is a member of llic St. James 
Episcopal church. During Iiis long ser- 
\ice as court stenographer he has become 
widely known to the county and bar of this 
portion of the state, and enjoys the high es- 
teem of the members of the legal fraternity, 
as well as the many friends whom lie has 
gained in social life. 



GEORGE A. CASE. 

George Alfred Case, who is a representa- 
tive of the commercial interests of Watkins, 
is now engaged in dealing in ice. He was 
born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, De- 
cember 4, i860, and is a son of Ephraim and 
Harriet (Heebe) Case. In the schools of 
his native town the subject of this review 
gained his early education which was later 
continued in the city of Washington, D. C. 
^^'hen his literary course was completed he 
began learning the machinist's trade, which 
he followed for a year. He then became con- 
nected with the Pennsylvania system of rail- 
roads, as news agent, making his home at 
Williamsport. Later he became brakesman 
on the road, but subsequently he returned to 
the news business, which he conducted for 
ten years. On the expiration of tliat period 
he accepted a position in a sash and blind 
factory in Watkins, where he was employed 
continuously until 1894, when, with the cap- 
ital he had acquired through his energy, per- 
severance and business capacity, he began 
dealing in ice, For eight years he has car- 
ried on business in this line and has met with 
commendable and gratifying success, having 
a large and growing patronage, which is in- 
dicative of his honorable business methods 
and the confidence reposed in him by the 
public. 



On Christmas day of 1880 was celebrated 
the marriage of Mr. Case and Miss Carrie M. 
Seaman, a daughter of W. D. and Emily M. 
( Beckwith) Seaman. After the death of his 
first wife Mr. Case was again married on the 
14th of February, 1898, his second union be- 
ing Carrie M. Newman, a daughter of Hosea 
and Sarah (Edwards) Newman. The lady 
is a native of Steuben county, New York, 
born Januar)' 24, 1869, and has become the 
mother of two children. Pearl and Alice. 
Fraternally Mr. Case is connected with the 
Tribe of Red Men, of Watkins, and was at 
one time a member of tiic Junior Order of 
I'liited American Mechanics. He holds 
membership in the Baptist church, and polit- 
ically is connected with the Grand Old party, 
having always been a stanch advocate of Re- 
publican principles. He has proven himself 
in all relations of life an earnest, honest, 
upright man, a progressive representative 
of commercial interests, and a citizen of 
whom any comminiity might well be proud. 



MOSES BOYNE. 



Moses Boyne is now living a retired life 
after many years of honorable connection 
with business affairs. His rest is well mer- 
ited, for in all of his trade relations he was 
industrious and reliable. As a citizen, too, 
he has ever been loyal to the welfare of his 
county, and at the time of the Civil war he 
donned the blue uniform of the United States 
army and fought for the supremacy of the 
stars and stripes, the emblem of t!ie national 
union. 

He was born in County Wexford, Ireland, 
on the 4th of July, 1827, and pursued his ed- 
ucation in the common schools of his native 



I 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



28s 



country, where lie remainctl until about 
twenty-eiglit years of age. He then bade 
adieu to friends in his native land and in 
1855 sailed for the new world, establishing 
his home in Covert, Xew York. There he 
secured employment upon the farm of Harry 
Boardman, of Seneca county, in whose ser- 
vice he remained for five years. At the end 
ot that time he put asiile all business and per- 
sonal considerations, for the country was still 
engaged in the Civil war, and he felt that he 
must aid in preserving the union. In the fall 
of 1864, therefore, he enlisted as a member 
of Company C, Eirst New York Light Artil- 
lery, at Covert, and was mustered in at 
Albany. He participated in the battles of 
Petersburg, Fredericksburg and others of 
considerable importance, and on one occa- 
sion he w^as drilling when a shell, shot from 
a Rebel camp, bursted near him and he 
was struck l)y a piece in the left eye, which 
caused him to lose the entire sight of that 
member. In Virginia the regiment went into 
winter quarters and there he received his 
discharge, being mustered out at Elmira, 
New York. After his return from the army 
Mr. Boyne worked upon a farm for a num- 
ber of years, afterward operating a tract of 
land on shares. He next purchased five 
acres of land at Mechlenbin-g, which he still 
owns and upon it iie has erected a beautiful 
residence. Since 1890 he has lived a retired 
life, enjoying a rest which he has truly 
earned and richly merits. 

In the year 1858 Mr. Boyne was united 
ir. marriage to Elizabeth Donohue, a daugh- 
ter of Nicholas and Nancy (Egan) Dono- 
hue. In the family were seven children : 
George and I'rank, who are now deceased ; 
\Villiam, Moses, Edward and Ella, who are 
residents of Watkins; Elizabeth, the wife of 
Harry Eggert; and William, who has passed 



away. Moses Boyne is a citizen of worth, a 
loyal son of his adopted land, and in the com- 
munity where he resides he is held in high 
esteem. 



EDWIN BOYNE. 

Perhaps no one business enterprise or in- 
dustry indicates more clearly the commercial 
and social status of a town than its hotels. 
The wide-awake, enterprising villages and 
cities must have pleasant accommodations 
for visitors and traveling men and the for- 
eign public judges of a community by the 
entertainment afforded to llie strangers. In 
this regard the Watkins Hotel, of which Mr. 
Boyne is proprietor, is an indication of the 
character and advantages of the town in 
which it is located, for the hostelry will rank 
favorably with those of many a larger place, 
and its genial proprietor neglects nothing 
that can add to the comfort of its guests. 

Mr. Boyne is a native of Tompkins 
county. New York, born January 29, 1870, 
his parents being Moses and Elizabeth 
Boyne. He pursued his education in the 
public schools of Trumansburg, New York, 
pursuing a high school course, and after 
putting aside his text books he engaged in 
the hotel business in Watkins, in connection 
with his brother William. They are propri- 
etors of the Glen City Hotel, which is situ- 
ated at the corner of East I'ourth and De- 
catur streets. It is a well equipped building, 
the original residence of John Magee, Sr. It 
contains thirty-five rooms and has all the 
modern appointments of an up-to-date hos- 
telry. The proprietors are lioth enterprising 
young business men, who put forth every ef- 
fort to please their patrons and are thus pop- 
ular with the traveling public. 



285 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



* Edwin Boyne is a mcml)er of Itliaca 
Lodge, No. 71, I. O. O. P., and bas held the 
office of left supporter of the noble grand. 
Religiously he is connected with the Presby- 
terian church, attending its services, al- 
though not a member. Politically he is a 
Democrat. \\'hile he has a deep interest in 
the growth and success of the party, he has 
never Ijeen an aspirant for office, preferring 
to devote his attention to his busmess inter- 
ests. He is a genial and popular young man, 
widely known in \\'atkins, and a favorite in 
social circles. 



D. -AI. REYNOLDS. 



D. M. Reynolds is a native of the neigh- 
boring state of Pennsylvania, his birth hav- 
ing occurred in Alba, Bradford county, in 
1854. His father, William Reynolds, was a 
native of Connecticut, born in 1812, and in 
early life he became a resident of New York, 
settling in Sullivanville. Chemung county. 
He was united in marriage to Miss Sallie 
IMalloiy. and they became the parents of five 
children. Abrgail, the eldest, is the wife of 
J. W. Packard, a resident of Alba, Pennsyl- 
vania, and they have five children: .Mice, 
George, William, .\rdell and Guy. Martha, 
the second member of the .Reynolds family, 
became the wife of Charles Manly, and they. 
too, live in Alba. Seven children have been 
i)orn of their union, namely : I'rank, Fred, 
Minnie, Floyd, Ford, h'ay and Finas. George 
the eldest son of William and Sallie Rey- 
nolds, is engaged in blacksniilhing in .Mba. 
Edward, the second son, is livir.g in Wat- 
kins, in the township of Reading, Schuyler 
county. He wedded Julia B. Saylor. a 
daughter of Hiram and Harriet (Burnett') 
Savior, in whose familv were seven children. 



namely: Luther, John, Louise, Julia. Cath- 
erine, Deborah and Sarah. Unto Edward 
and Julia B. (Saylor) Reynolds have been 
bom two children : Lillian and Catherine. 
The youngest member of the family of Will- 
iam Reynolds is the subject of this review. 

Daniel AI. Reynolds entered the public 
schools at the usual age, continuing his stud- 
ies until he reached the age of fourteen, when 
he began earning his own living, accepting 
a position in a carriage factory. For two 
years he has given his attention to agricultur- 
al pursuits and is now a well known fanner 
of Schuyler county. He took up his abode 
on his present place in Reading township, in 
the year 1901. and here has one hundred and 
sixty acres of land. The aiterprise and 
progressive spirit so characteristic of the 
owner are indicated by the neat and thrifty 
ai>pearance of his place. It is now well im- 
proved with modern ecpiipnients and acces- 
sories. 

In 1897 Mr. Reynolds was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Mary Eggleston, and they have 
an attracti\e home, which is the favorite re- 
sort of their friends. In his political views 
Mr. Reynolds is a Democrat, and keeps well 
informed on the issues of the day. His re- 
ligious faith is indicated by his membership 
iii the church of the Disciples. 



FREDERICK D.WTS. 

The historv of a state as well as that of a 
nation is chiefly the chronicle of the lives 
and deeds of those who have conferred honor 
and dignity upon society. The world judges 
the character of a coninumity by that of its 
representative citizens and yields its tributes 
of admiration and respect for the genius. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



287 



learning or \irtues of those whose works and 
actions constitute the record of a state's pros- 
perity and pride; and it is in tlieir character 
as excniplitied in probity and benevolence, 
kindly virtues and integrity in tiie affairs of 
hie tliat they are ever affording worthy ex- 
amples lor ennilatiiin and valuable lessons 
of incentive. Schuyler county has no citi- 
zen more highly honored or more worthy of 
honor than is Frederick Davis, and this rec- 
ord would be incomplete without the history 
of his career. 

A native of Newbury, England, he w-as 
born October 22, 1824, a son of Frederick 
and Esther (Lake) Davis. The father was 
also born in Newbury, in 1797, and died in 
Rochester, New York, in 1890, while the 
mother was bom in London, England, in 
1889, and died in Mount Morris, New York, 
in 1843. When he was eight years of age the 
family emigrated to the new world, locating 
in Mount Morris, New York, and he pursued 
his education in the public schools of that 
place, where he resiiled until eighteen years 
01 age, when he left for the west, going to 
St. Louis, ^lissouri. For two years he en- 
gaged in teaching school in Pike county, 
Missouri, and then on account of failing 
heallli he rcmo\ed to Mississippi, where he 
was employed as a teacher for one year. On 
the expiration of that period he returned to 
Mount Morris and embarketl in merchandis- 
ing, carrying on business with success until 
about 1850. 

While there Mr. Davis was married, in 
1849, to Miss Rebecca McHenry, who was 
bom April 2, 1828, a niece of John Magee, 
Sr., and a daughter of Daniel and Mary 
(Magee) McHenry. Three children, Harry, 
Frederick and Minnie were born of that un- 
ion, the last two being now deceased. The 
mother of these children died in 1869, and 



April I, 1872, Mr. Davis was again married, 
h.is second union being with Frances Hewett, 
a daughter of D. Judson and Sarah (Smith) 
Hewett. One son blessetl this marriage, 
Cameron Josiah, born December 13, 1S73. 
He was graduated with honors in Trinity 
College, at Hartford, Connecticut, and in the 
general Theological Seminary of New York 
city. Having prepared for the ministiy he 
then entered upon active work as a priest of 
the Episcopal church, accepting the position 
of assistant to Dr. Lobdell, rector of Trinity 
church, of Buffalo. Upon the death of the 
Doctor, the Rev. Cameron J. Davis was 
chosen as his successor. Though only twen- 
ty-eight years of age, he has already become 
one of the distinguished divines of his de- 
nomination. Mrs. Frances Davis died on the 
6tli of February, 1889. 

In the year 1852 the subject of this re- 
\\q\\ accepted the position of secretary of 
the Buffalo, Corning & New York Railroad 
Compau}-, whose line running from Corning 
to Buffalo by way of Avon, now forms a part 
of the Erie Railroad. Subsequently he was 
also made treasurer and acted in the dual ca- 
pacity until 1857, during the period of the 
construction of the road. He was located 
successfully at Coming, Bath, Le Roy and 
Avon, in the discharge of his oflicial duties. 
Severing his connection with the railroad 
company, he then removed to Watkins, and 
erected a malt house which is now occupied 
b} the firm of Lembeck & Bctz, and also the 
one of which William V. Smith is manager, 
situated on the lake shore. Mr. Davis con- 
tinued to conduct these malt houses until 
about 1882, when on account of the destruc- 
tion by fire of one plant and the decline of 
the value of property, owing to the compe- 
tition of western firms, he was forced out of 
business. In 1895 he took charge of the 



288 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Watkins public library and for seven years 
has acted in the capacity of public librarian, 
and being a man of scholarly attainments 
and broad general knowledge, he is well 
qualified for this work. 

Mr. Davis has been most active and influ- 
ential in the moral development of his com- 
munity. He is a member of the Episcopal 
church in Watkins. In 1836 a house of wor- 
ship was erected by this society, crude in 
style and insuflicient for the demands of the 
congregation. In i860 Mr. Davis was instru- 
mental in reorganizing the congregation and 
building the first brick church in Watkins, 
erecting this chiefly at his own expense. He 
has ever been most generous in his support 
01 the church and his religion has formed a 
part of his daily life. In 1863 he became one 
of the charter members of the board of edu- 
cation, in Watkins, was elected its president, 
and held that position for twenty consecu- 
tive years. With one exception he is the only 
surviving member of the original board. 
They purchased the old frame Presbyterian 
church and used it as a school until the erec- 
tion of the present brick structure. After 
serving for twenty years Mr. Davis declined 
a re-election, but the city will always owe to 
him a debt of gratitude for what he accom- 
plished in behalf of the public school system. 
He labored earnestly, untiringly and ef- 
fectively in raising the standard of education 
here and in establishing a system of public 
instruction that is indeed creditable to the 
city. In politics Mr. Davis has long been an 
earnest Democrat and at one time was nom- 
inated by his party for congress, but could 
not entirely overcome the large Republican 
majority of the district. At this point it 
would be almost tautological to enter into 
any series of statements as showing Mr. 
Davis to be a man of broad intelligence and 



genuine public spirit, for these have been 
shadowed forth between the lines of this re- 
view. Strong in his individuality, he never 
lacks the courage of his convictions, but there 
are as dominating elements in this individual- 
ity a lively human .sympathy and an abid- 
ing charity, which, as taken in connection 
with the sterling integrity and honor of his 
character, have naturally gained for him the 
respect and confidence of men. 



WH.LI.\M E. AYERS. 

^'Vmong the brave boys in blue who went 
to the south to defend the Union in the hour 
of our country's peril, \Villiam E. Ayers was 
numbered. He is a son of Andrew and Su- 
san M. (Clauharty) Ayers, and was bom 
July 30, 1845, ^^ tli^ town of Montour, 
Schuyler county. At the usual age he en- 
tered school, therein pursuing his studies un- 
til sixteen years of age, when he began his 
Imsiness career as a well driver, following 
that occupation continuously for thirty years. 
I'ew men in the county have driven as many 
wells as has Mr. Ayers and his capability in 
that line has secured to him a good patron- 
age, his services being constantlj' in demand. 

On the 1st of October, 1895. ^^^ turned 
his attention to draying and the transfer 
business, which he has followed continuous- 
ly to the present. In this work he is also 
prosperous, many who need such services em- 
ploying him in transfer work. 

On the 28th of December, 1863, when 
I)Ut eighteen years of age, \\'illiam E. Ayers 
joined the Union army, becoming a mem- 
ber of Company C, Fourteenth New York 
Heavy Artillery, under the command of Cap- 
tain George A. Foote. He served continu- 



THE lilUGRAl'HlCAL RECURD 



259 



oiisly until July 25. 1865, when, tlie war 
having ended, he received an honorable dis- 
charge. He was in a number of important 
battles and his fidelity to duty was a marked 
characteristic of his military service. 

In the year 1868 Mr. ,A.yers was united in 

marriage to Miss Harriet A. Forrest, who 

t 
was l>oni November 17, 1846, and they be- 
gan their domestic life in Montour Falls, 
where they are now living. Six children have 
been bom unto them : Estella, born Decem- 
ber 21, 1869; Mary B., who was born May 
15, 1870, and died July 19. 1879 ; Grace, born 
May 24, 1873 ; Charles, born March 4, 1875 ; 
Plarry, born September 29, 1879 ! ^'^'^ Frank, 
born August 25, 1881. Mr. Ayers and his 
family attend the services of the Baptist 
church. His study of the political questions 
has led him to endorse the principles and 
platform of the Republican party, of which 
he has been an advocate since attaining his 
majority. He maintains pleasant relations 
with his old army comrades through his 
membership in the Grand Amiy Post. 



WINFIELD S. GUNDERMAN. 

A leading factor in commercial circles in 
North Hector is Winfield Scott Gunderman, 
who is there conducting a harness store, and 
is also connei'tcd with the fire insurance busi- 
ness. A native of the Empire state, his birth 
occurred in the town of Lodi, Seneca county, 
on the 23d of August, 1864, his parents be- 
ing Conrad and Deborah (Howell) (Gunder- 
man. His father was born in Steuben county. 
New York, and during his boyhood became a 
resident of Seneca county, where he re- 
mained until his life's labors were ended in 
death. By occupation he was a farmer, 



throughout his business career carrying on 
iliat pursuit, tiius providing a comfortable 
home for his family. At the time of the 
Civil war he responded with patriotic ardor 
to the call of his country and joined the 
Union army, enlisting at Lodi and being 
mustered in at Geneva, as a member of Com- 
pany C, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth 
Regiment. He served for only about six 
months, for at the battle of Harper's Ferry 
he lost an arm and was thus rendered unfit 
for further field duty. Returning to his home 
in Seneca county, he continued farming there 
until his death, which occurred when he was 
sixty-three years of age. tie was a member 
of Daniel B. Smith Post, G. A. R. His wife 
died on the 14th of October, 1902, at the age 
of seventy-three years. 

Under the parental roof Winfield S. Gun- 
derinan spent the days of his childhood and 
i;i the public schools of Lodi he pursued his 
education. He then learned the harness- 
maker's trade in Nortii Hector under the di- 
rection of his brother, A. M. Gunderman, 
who is now deceased. Our stibject has since 
followed the Inisiness and prior to his broth- 
er's death he purchased his shop v.hich he has 
since conducted. He is a good workman and 
his sales are growing year by year. He is 
also agent for two well known and reliable 
fire insurance companies, the Glen Falls and 
the Commercial Union, and the policies which 
he writes each year amount to a considerable 
figure. 

On the 30th of January, 1890, ^[r. Gun- 
derman was happily married to Miss Florence 
I'aync, and unto them have been born two 
children, Enna and Ray, both of whom are 
at home. Mr. Gunderman is a member of 
Hector Lodge. No. 31 r, K. P., and that he 
cnj<n-s the high regard of his brethren is 
shown by the fact that he has passed all 



290 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



of the chairs in the order. He is now 
district deputy, and in 1899 he repre- 
sented his lodge in the grand lodge. 
He also has membership relations with 
Schuyler Tent, No. 462, of the Knights 
of Maccabees, of North Hector, and served 
as its secretary. Religiously he is connected 
with the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
politically with the Republican party, his 
first \-ote having been cast for Benjamin 
Harrison. He is a wide-awake, enterpris- 
ing business !iian, whose advancement is due 
entirely to his own efforts, and though there 
have been no exciting chapters in his career, 
his life history nevertheless shows the force 
of industry, perseverance and economy in 
the "world's broad field of battle.'.' 



DR. ROBERT BELL. 

In a profession where advancement de- 
pends upon individual merit Dr. Robert 
Bell has gained distinction, and altliough 
he is now well advanced in years he is still 
practicing, and his efforts are of material 
benefit in alleviating human suffering. He 
has beai a very important factor in tlie up- 
building and development of Monterey and 
in the history of Schuyler county he de- 
serves prominent mention as there is prob- 
ably no man within its borders that is held 
in higher regard or has more warm friends. 

A son of William and Elizabeth (Gra- 
ham) Bell, the Doctor was l)orn on the 24th 
of August, 1815, in County Down, Ireland, 
about twelve miles from the city of Belfast. 
He was but twelve years of age when he 
bade adieu to his native land and with tlic 
family came to the new world, arriving at 
St. Johns, New Brunswick, in 1827. From 



there he made his way to Boston, Massachu- 
setts, and afterward became a resident of 
Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he con- 
tinued his education in the public schools, 
afterward attending school in Danbury, 
that state, for a time. Later he was a stu- 
dent in Newbui'g, New York, and while 
there he was taken ill with typhoid fever, 
which made such inroads upon his health 
and strength that it was belie\ed that he 
could not recover. His strong constitution, 
however, finally enabled him to rally and 
when he had recovered his health he moved 
across the river to Fishkill Landing. While 
his own life was spared he was called upon 
to mourn the loss of a brother and sister at 
Fishkill Landing. Subsec[uently he con- 
tinued his studies in the town of Fishkill 
and afterward went to Matteawan, Dutchess 
county, where he was employed in a cotton 
factory for about a year. On leaving there 
he accompanied his parents on their removal 
to what was then Newtown, but is now the 
city of Elmira, New York, where he again 
attended school, and from there the family, 
came to Schuyler county, settling in what 
it is now the town of Orange, about three 
miles south of Monterey. Here the Doctoi* 
resumed his studies and in the years 1S39 
and 1840 was a student in u select school \n 
Montour Falls, conducted by Artemus Fay, 
a very highly educated man, and later by 
Mr. Gillett, who was a prominent educator 
of his day. 

Again the Doctor was taken ill and the 
physician who attended him. Dr. Nelson 
Winton, becoming interested in him, made 
a proposition whereby he was to study with 
Dr. Winton. Vov three years he remained 
witii his preceptor and then went to Orange 
Center, now Monterey, but after a few days 
he returned to Montour I-'alls and, as agreed 




MRS. ROBERT BELL 




ROBERT BELL, M. D. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



293 



upon, gave the Doctor the Ijenclit of his 
services for one year in payment for tlie in- 
struction lie liad received. When his tenn 
of service iiad almost expired he began 
looking around for a location and at tliis 
time he became acquainted witii Dr. Oakley, 
then living in Seneca county, New York, 
near Fayette. Dr. Bell's people, however, 
resided near Monterey and he went there to 
visit his parents and found his nu>t]ier very 
ill with congestion of the brain. He did 
everything in his power and also sent to 
Montour Falls (then Havana) for his old 
preceptor, Dr. W'inton, but their combined 
elTorts couKl not save her. While minister- 
ing to his mother he was often called upon to 
make professional calls in Montere\', and 
finally yielded to an appeal from the citi- 
zens of that locality to locate permanently 
here. Since then he has successfully en- 
gaged in practice at this place, his patron- 
age steadily increasing as he manifests his 
ability to successfully cope with the intricate 
problems that continually face the physi- 
cian. He has read broadly and w ith under- 
standing and his knowledge of the science 
of medicine is comprehensive and accurate 
and everything which tends to bring to man 
the kej-^ of that complex mystery which we 
call life is of interest to Dr. Bell. He has a 
\ery fine medical library, containing the 
latest works on the science, and also has an 
extensive private library. In 1846 he joined 
the Steuben Medical Society and is to-day 
its oldest meml)er. lie also belongs to the 
Medico Legal ScKiety of New York city. 
In 1849 Dr. Bell was united in marriage 
to Miss Harriet M. Haring, and they Ijegan 
their domestic life in the town of ^Monterey, 
In the sjiring of 1878 they went on an ex- 
tensive trip through the west and south, 
with the hope of benefiting Mrs. Bell's 

17 



b.calth, antl after spending S(^)mc lime in St. 
Louis returned to Elniira, Xew York, 
where the Doctor opened an ofl'ice, locating 
there on account of his wife's health, l)ut it 
was her desire to return to ^lonterey and in 
less than a year they again took up their 
residence here. She seemed much benefit- 
ed by the change, and here the Doctor erect- 
ed a very fine residence at cost of eight 
thousand dollars. He has since been called 
upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who died 
on the 3d of September, 1902, and was laid 
to rest in Glenwood cemetery, W'atkins, 
where the Doctor owns a beautiful lot, oc- 
cu])yng an clexated and central position 
Here he has erected to her memory a costly 
monument of artistic design, on wliich is 
cut in a prominent, bold and strong hand, 
the imperishable words of Toplady : "Rock 
of i\ges cleft for me." Mrs. Bell was a 
most estimable lady, dearly beloved by all 
who knew her. She was an active antl in- 
fiuential menibei- of the Presbyterian church 
being at the head of all prominent societies, 
especially the missionary organizations, 
and in her last will she left to the Monterey 
Presbyterian church a sum of money, the in- 
terest of which is equivalent to her annual 
subscription. By this beiiutiful act her 
memor}' will be perpetuated long after those 
whom she endeavored to help during life 
have passed away and will keep her name 
fragrant and in loxing remembrance as 
"ointment i)oured forth." 

In e;irly life Dr. Bell united with the 
Presbyterian church of Montour Falls, of 
which he is still a member, and in his will 
has bequeathed one thousand dollars to that 
society. He is also a liberal contributor to 
the suppnri of the Presbyterian church of 
Monterey and is seldom absent from its ser- 
vices. Like most village churches its mem- 



294 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



bership is small and consequaitly its sub- 
scriptions limited, but it is believed tliat the 
Doctor will walk in the footsteps of his be- 
loved wife and in his will donate a sum, the 
interest of which will be equal to his yearly 
subscription. This will place him among the 
public benefactors and philanthropists of 
the county and he will live on and on in the 
minds and affections of the descendants of 
the people with whom he has come in con- 
tact and assisted both in business and pro- 
fessional life for over half a century, and 
also aid the church on whose services his at- 
tendance has been marked and regular. 

Dr. Bell still occupies the fine home 
which he built and which is elegantly fur- 
nished, being the most beautiful and tasteful 
residence in Monterey. He has been very 
acti\e and prominent in the public affairs 
of his place. He erected a large block 
for the postoffice and three stores, above 
which is a large hall in which entertain- 
ments are held. The citizens of Monterey 
donated to this hall two beautiful and almost 
life-like photographs of the Doctor and his 
wife at its opening and they are still on ex- 
hibition there as a reminder of the high and 
sincere appreciation in which Dr. and Mrs. 
Bell are held. The hall has a kitchen, sit- 
ting room and unique oval entrance and is 
artistically furnished, there being beautiful 
and rare pictures on the walls, as well as a 
piano for the music lovers. It was all con- 
structed after the Doctor's own designs. In 
September, 1891, he bought what was 
known as the opera house block in Elmira, 
on Lake street, which contains four store 
rooms and their attachments, paying for the 
same three thousand seven hundred and 
fifty dollars. After keeping it for a year or 
over and making needful repairs, he sold 
it for four thousand two hundred and fifty 



dollars in cash, it being too far from home 
for his personal supervision. This was 
the largest sale ever made by one man 
in that city. The Doctor has become 
(juite wealthy, owning many valuable 
farms besiiles his city and town prop- 
erty. This includes a large farm adjoin- 
ing Monterey, which is one of the best 
improved places in the county. The fa- 
cilities for burying the dead in Monterey 
being very poor. Dr. Bell laid out a ceme- 
tery upon his place in 1901 for the use of all 
Protestant denominations and to it has 
given the name of Bell Mont cemetery. It 
is a lovely spot, being rising round which 
faces the south and east, and has been beau- 
tifully laid out by the Doctor into lots, 
walks and driveways, and adorned with 
evergreens. The soil is very dry and it is 
a convenient distance from town and so 
situated that the entire cemetery can be seen 
in one view. Further lots will be laid off 
to meet the demand and n^.ore shrubs and 
trees will be added. 

The Doctor still enjoys a large and lu- 
crative ])ractice and is often called in con- 
sultation in critical cases, where his diag- 
nosis invariably proves correct, though he 
may have dift'ered radically in his opinion 
from the other physicians, lie is always 
agreeable, especially with his fellow practi- 
tioners, yet on many occasions he differs 
with thejn and refuses to be led beyond the 
limits of his own judgment. No notoriety, 
distinction or selfish consideration would 
cause him to. deviate from his purpose when 
that decision is once formed by the dictates 
of his judgment. He is go\erned by integ- 
rity and is always strict and honest in all his 
dealings, keeping correct accounts, and giv- 
ing and receiving receipts in all business 
tiansactions. In the practice of his pro- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



295 



sions he always promptly responds to the 
calls of the poor and needy, from whom he 
knows he will receive no rennineration, 
as well as from the wealthier classes, and 
this has made him very popular with all. 

Dr. Bell has no children, hut was very 
much attached to his wife, and has taken 
much interest in all his relatives. As a pre- 
ceptor he lias given many young men a good 
start in the medical profession, and has 
done all in his power to aid in their advance- 
ment. He is noted for his kindness of 
heart and charitable deeds, and e\'er contrib- 
utes liberally to any worthy cause. In 1894 
he donated two thousand dollars to the 
Young Men's Christian Association of El- 
mira. A number of years ago when Mont- 
erey was small and had no church bell, the 
Baptist denomination asked all the people of 
the town to contribute to the buying of a 
bell to be placed upon their church but for 
the use of all denominations, but sometime 
later the pastor then in charge refused to let 
the other congregations use it. Finally, in 
Sei)tember. 1889, an indignation meeting 
was called with the intent of compelling the 
Baptists to let others use the bell. The 
Doctor, however, came forward at this 
crisis and offered to buy a bell to be placed 
upon the Presbyterian church for the use of 
both that denomination and the Methodists, 
both to contribute toward keeping it in or- 
der. The Doctor went himself to Troy, 
New York, and selected the bell at the fac- 
tor>' of Meneely & Company and ordered it 
sent to Monterey, where it has since rung 
joyously at weddings and solemnly tolled 
at the passing away of the citizens of Mon- 
terey and vicinity. It is very rich in tone 
and is highly prized by the people of the 
town who look upon Dr. Bell as a public 
benefactor. Although eighty-seven years 



of age he is strong and vigorous and still 
takes an active interest in those enterprises 
calculated to advance the moral, social or 
material welfare of his town and county. 
He is a \er}' genial gentleman of strong in- 
tellectual endowments, of scholarly attain- 
ments, of marked force of character, and 
those qualities, together with his kindly na- 
ture, have made him a favorite in the com- 
munity. Physically he is not a large man, 
but has a fine cast of countenance, his feat- 
ures being pleasing, strong, fascinating and 

attractive. 

•-•-• 

CHARLES II. EVERTS. 

Charles II. Everts, attorney and counsel- 
or-at-law and one of the influential citizens 
of Watkins, was born in the town of Di.x, 
Schuyler county, October 4, 1835, being the 
.son of Alanson G. and Anna (Levitt) 
Everts. The family of which he is an hon- 
ored representative has for three generations 
been closely identified with the growth and 
development of this section of the state. The 
first of the name to come hither was his 
great-grandfather, Daniel Everts. He and 
Reuben Smith left Salisbury, Connecticut, 
for the western country and arrived at Hec- 
tor, June I, 1793. They remained that sea- 
son, putting in crops of corn and wheat, and 
after harvest returned to Connecticut. In 
the spring of 1794 Daniel Everts, with his 
wife and eight children, an<l Reuben Smith, 
with his wife and five children, returned to 
Hector. The great-grandfather's family 
compri.sed the following children: Aran- 
thus, Charles, Polly, Daniel, John, Asena, 
and Abram. 

Aranthus Everts, the grandfather of the 
subject of this sketch, was a colonel in the 



296 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



war of 1812, and raised a regiment, whicli 
went on foot through tlie unbroken wilder- 
ness from Hector to Buffalo. He had com- 
mand of a fort when a flag of truce was 
sent to him. and a demand to surrender was 
refused. flie general in command sent 
word, "I want you to understand that we 
will take our breakfast in this fort tomorrow 
morning." Colonel Everts replied, "If you 
undertake it you will get your supper in 
hell." The Everts familv originated in 
Wales, but has been associated with Ameri- 
can history from an early period in the set- 
tlement of the country. 

Aranthus Everts married Margaret 
Matthews, daughter of Courtright Mat- 
thews. Their son, Alanson G. Everts, was 
united in marriage with Anna Levitt, and 
their family consisted of five sons and two 
daughters, of whom Charles H. is next to 
the youngest. He passed the days of his 
boyhood in his native town, gaining the 
rudiments of his education in the primary 
schools, and later became a student in Al- 
fred University, where he remained for a 
time. Afterward he taught school, in which 
way he gained the means that enabled him 
to prosecute his legal studies. He com- 
menced tlie study of law with Marcus Craw- 
ford, of Havana, and gained thorough 
knowledge of Coke, Blackstone and Kent, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1857. Later 
he took a two years' course at Albany Law 
School, fmni which institution he was grad- , 
jiated November 26, 1858, with the degree 
of LL. B. 

Opening an office in Havana, ^Ir. Everts 
continued the practice of his profession there 
for three years. Thence, in 1861, he went 
to r'armer, Seneca county, where he re- 
mained for two years. In 1865 he came to 
Watkins, opened an office and commaiced 



a general practice, which he has continued 
to the present, being now one of the oldest 
members of the Schuyler county bar. In 
politics he is a Democrat, and during the 
entire period of his connection with that 
party he has stood by it, in cloud and sun- 
shine, with unshaken lidelity. In 1888, 
when drover Cleveland was a candiilate, lie 
was a presidential elector. During cam- 
paigns, his services are especially valuable, 
as he takes an active part in both local and 
national elections, and was for many j'ears 
chairman of the Democratic county com- 
mittee. 

January 15, 1861, Mr. Everts married 
Miss Eliza A., daughter of Job Banker, of 
Hector. They are- the parents of one son 
and two daughters: Josiah B. ; Mary E., 
the wife of I'Vank Hill, of Ehnira, New 
York; and Hannah M., the wife of L. H. 
Cha.se, of Watkins, New York. Mr. Everts 
is domestic in his tastes, and his friends are 
always hospitably welcomed to his pleasant 
home. He was fortunate in securing in his 
wife a companion fully suited to his quali- 
ties of mind and character. To a large de- 
gree is it due to her ready sympathy and 
mental capacity that he has been enabled to 
make for himself a noble record as a citizen 
and as an attorney. 



JOHN N.\GLE. 



A representative of the railroad inter- 
ests of the Em])ire state, John Nagle now 
makes his home in Montour Falls. He is 
numbered among the native sons of the Em- 
erald isle, his birth having occurred in that 
country in the year 1833. When about six 
years of age he entcretl the public schools. 



I 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



;97 



wlierein lie pursued his studies until lie 
readied tlie age of fifteen years. He then 
started out upon his business career, an<l 
wliatever success he lias acliieved has l)een 
tlie direct result of liis own efforts. He be- 
gan work as a boss on a railroad in 1851, 
and throughout his entire life he has since 
lieen connected with railroad work, his faith- 
fulness to duty and his industry and dili- 
gence securing him steatly work and the con- 
fidence of those whom he has served. 

In the year 1867 Mr. Xagle was united 
in marriage to Miss Maggie Knight, and 
their home has been blessed with the follow- 
ing children : lilla, Anna. Lizzie. Margaret, 
Isabel and John. Mr. Xagle. his wife and 
children are all communicants of the Catho- 
lic church. In politics he is independent, sup- 
porting the men whom he thinks best quali- 
fied for office, regardless of party affiliations. 
His father, John Kmght. never came to 
America, but died in Ireland. The clvildren 
of his family were: Michael, a resident of 
Elmira, X'ew ^^)rk ; Richard, deceased; 
Mary: Catharine: Honora : Patrick, a resi- 
dent of Nebraska ; and lohn. 



CORNELIUS VAX ALLEN. 

Cornelius \'an Allen, who is engaged in 
the produce business in Watkins, is account- 
ed one of the progressive, enterprising mer- 
chants of this place and is a rejjresentative 
of an honored pioneer family. His father, 
John P. \'an .Allen, was a son of Peter Van 
Allen, and was burn in Columliia county. 
New York, in 1793. His mother bore the 
maiden name of Miss Gordenier. He traces 
his ancestry back to one of three brothers 
who came from Holland in the year 1G22, 



and established families, their descendants 
being now very numerous. I'urther men- 
tion is luade of this family in the sketch of 
John J. \'an Allen on another page of this 
\olume. About 1813 John P. \'an Allen 
removed to .\llegany county. New York, 
settling in the town of Birdsall. He was the 
lu'st to locate within its borders and there he 
engaged in business as a currier and tanner. 
He was reared in Columbia county, Xew 
\'ork, and was a man of large physique and 
strong and robust constitution, well fitted 
for the hartlships of a frontier life, and as 
the country became settled he was recog- 
nized as one of the leading and influential 
men of his community. He served as the 
first justice of the town of Birdsall, and also 
was the first town clerk of the town of 
.Mien. When the country became in- 
\olved in the second war with England 
b.e enlisted for service under the com* 
mand of Captain \'an Meek, in a com- 
pany of the X'cw A'ork militia. Mr. \'ar. 
.Allen was united in marriage to Betsey 
Cooper, who was born in Schodack Land- 
ing, Rensselaer count}', Xew A'ork, in 1800, 
and reared a family of eight children. Cor- 
nelius Ynn Allen of this review was the sev- 
enth in order of birth, and the father died 
when he was but three years of age. All of 
the children, with the exception of one 
brother and sister, are now deceased. 

Cornelius \?.n .\llen was born in the 
town of Birdsall. on the 3d of March, 1835. 
and at a very early age started out t<i earn 
his own living. His mother was left with 
a large family of children and found it diffi- 
cult to care for them, but did her best and 
managed to keep a hoiue for theiu. The edu- 
cational privileges which our sul)ject re- 
ceived were very liiuited. Eor a short time 
he attended the district schools, but most of 



298 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



the time worked upon tlie farm in order to 
relieve liis mother of his support. She after- 
ward became the wife of John Emmons. 
Cornehus Van Allen went to live with a 
lawyer in Dansville, doing chores for his 
board. He took up the trade of currier and 
leather finisher in Connecticut, follow- 
ing that pursuit for a few years, after 
\\hich he returned to Li\'ingston county, 
New York. There he began getting tim- 
ber in the forests and after two years 
came to W'atkins, where, in 1869, he 
was appointed keeper of the Auburn 
prison. Four years later he turned his at- 
tention to the iron business, which he fol- 
lowed for three years in the city of Buffalo, 
and then came to W'atkins, where he em- 
barked in the produce business, which he 
has since followed. He handles all kinds 
of farm produce and his trade is now ex- 
tensive, returning to him a gratifying in- 
come. 

At the time of the Civil war Air. Van 
Allen was appointed recruiting agent by 
Governor Horatio Seymour. In 1864 he 
held a commission from Governor Sey- 
mour to secure recruits in the southern 
states for the Union cause and in the 
performance of duty he went to Chatta- 
nooga. Here he was arrested and tried 
by a military commission, but was dis- 
charged. In 1856 he joined the Masonic 
fraternity and was one of the first masters 
of Jefferson Lodge, in Watkins. He has 
also been a representative of many other 
fraternal organizations and is a worthy 
exemplar of the craft, having in his life 
.shown forth its beneficent and heliiful spirit. 

On the 8th of June, 1869, Mr. Van Allen 
was united in marriage to Miss Emma S., 
a daughter of William and Sophia (Olp) 
r.avlf)r. Two children were born unto our 



.subject and his wife: Helen, who died at 
the age of thirteen years; and Betsey Cor- 
nelia, who is still with her parents and has 
reached the age of thirteen. Mr. Van Allen 
has led a busy and useful life and may well 
be called a self-made man. Starting out for 
himself at a very early age w ithout any ex- 
traordinary family or pecuniary advantages 
to assist him he has labored earnestly and 
energetically and by indomitable courage 
and integrity has achieved both character 
and a competence. By sheer force of will 
and untiring effort he has worked his way 
upward and is numbered among the leading 
business men of Watkins. 



JOHN J. VAN ALLEN. 

The life of this well known attorney of 
Watkins has been one of untiring effort, un- 
aided by any of the advantages that tend so 
materially to help young men. To him did 
belong the distinction of being one of the 
oldest attorneys of Schuyler county and also 
the oldest lawyer living in the county seat. 
The knowledge acquired by an academical 
education in youth, he supplemented by 
constant reading, that made him one of the 
best informed men on general subjects in 
his communit}'. 

In the town of Birdsall, Allegany 
county, New York, Mr. VanAllen was born 
September 22, 1826. The grandfather, 
Peter VanAllen, was a native of Kinder- 
hook, Columbia county. New York, his an- 
cestors coming from Holland. They were 
among the first Dutch settlers of New York, 
emigrating about 1620. The father, John 
P. \'anAl!en, was also born in Kinder- 
hook, Columbia county, February i, 1794, 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



299 



and was reared to niaiiliood on a farm. His 
marriage united Iiini with Elizabeth Cooper, 
a native of Schodack, Rensselaer county, 
New York, and daughter of John Cooper, 
who removed from Rensselaer to Cayuga 
county, settling near the village of Victory, 
in what was called Hooker's school district. 

The paternal family consisted of four 
sons and lour daughters, of whom only one 
is still living, John J. VanAllen, the third 
in order of birth. His boyhood days were 
passed in .Vngeiica. Allegany county, 
wliere he was a student in the district schools 
and the academy. Later he carried on his 
studies in the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, 
at Lima. New York. For five years he 
clerked in stores at Angelica, \\'aterloo and 
Seneca Falls. On completing his literary 
studies he began to read law with Diven, 
Hathaway & Woods, at Elmira, and in July, 
1851, w^as admitted to practice at the bar in 
Cooperstown, Otsego county, at the general 
term of the supreme court. 

Immediately afterward I\Ir. X'anAllcn 
came to Watkins and commenced a general 
law practice, to which the succeeding years 
were devoted. Having practiced for nearly 
fifty years in the county, he was, as above 
stated, the oldest member of the Schuyler 
county bar. In January, 1856, he was ad- 
mitted to the supreme court of the United 
States at Washington. D. C, and practiced 
in state and federal courts. 

In political views, Mr. VanAllen is a 
Democrat of the Jeffersonian school, and he 
has Ijeen intimately identified with the his- 
tory of that party for over forty years or 
more. On difTerent occasions he had been 
a delegate to national and state conventions, 
in which he always took an active part, dis- 
charging his duties in a praiseworthy man- 
ner. During the campaign of Horace 



Greeley, Mr. \'anAllen did not favor him 
for presiilent, and with other members of 
the party, he issued circular letters to prom- 
inent Deiuocrats throughout the country, 
urging that a Democratic candidate be 
placed in the field in opposition to Greeley. 
The result was that a convention met at 
Louisville, Kentucky, Septemljer 3, 1872, 
when Charles O'Connor was nominated for 
president and John Ouincy Adams for vice 
president. The former, however, declined 
the nomination. 

On June _'i, 1853, Mr. \'an Allen was 
married to .Miss Sophia L. Downer, 
daughter of Joseph G. Downer, an old resi- 
dent of Auburn, New York. She died Feb- 
ruary 15. 1874, leaving four children, name- 
ly: Charlotte L., wile of L. Comstock, of 
Oxford, Chenango county. New York; 
\Vashington Irving, an attorney residing at 
Mt. Morris, New York; Altia, who is mar- 
ried and lives in Detroit: and IMargaretta, 
who lives in O.xford. Mr. Van.Mlen was 
again married I-'ebruary 23, 1875, to Anna 
Aug^ista Bennett, who was a native of Nor- 
wich, New York. Socially .Mr. VanAllen 
was connected with the Jefferson Lodge, 
No. 332, I'". & A. M., of Watkins. A gen- 
erous, kind hearted man, he has given his 
means to all worthy objects, especially those 
calculated to promote the general welfare, 
and to the needy his aid has always been 
cheerfully extended. 

The following are historical fragments 
taken from the Albany Argus that shows 
the esteem in which a member of the Van- 
Alien family was held during the early his- 
tory of America, and some of the positions 
that John F. \'an.\llen filled. 

The.se .-ux brought to light through a 
sketch of the "Mohawk \'alley in early 
d.'ivs." and df the visit oi the Duke de la 



300 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Rochefoucaiilt Liancourt to America in 
1795. Tliis Duke was one of the most ami- 
able and best informed of tlie French nobil- 
ity who were exiled by the revolution. In 
1795 he made a journey for philosophical 
and commercial observations through a 
great part of North America, and communi- 
cated his observations to the world in a valu- 
able narrative, from which that portion re- 
lating to Albany and its vicinity is given Ije- 
low. He was a traveler of no ordinary dis- 
cernment and diligence in inquiry, but fell 
into the customary error of brief sojourners, 
who speak fully of persons and places which 
they do not ha\e time and opportunity to 
become thoroughly accjuainted with, l-'ran- 
cois .Mexandre I'rederic. Duke de la Roche- 
foucault L.iancourt, burn in 1747. was a 
member of the constituent assembly in 1789, 
after the dissolution of which be took the 
military command at Uourer. in his capacity 
of lieutaiant general, in 1792. .\fter the 
joth of August the Duke de Liancourt. as 
he was then styled, left I'rance and resided 
for eighteen months in England. He then 
traveled through the United States, whence 
he returned in 179S. and. after the i8th 
Brumaire, returned to France, where be de- 
voted himself to the promotion of the useful 
arts and to l)ene\'olent oftices. It was 
through bis influence that vaccination was 
introduced into I'rance. .\fter the restora- 
tion he was created a peer, but on account 
of the liberality of his sentiments, was, in 
1823 and 1824, excluded from the council 
of state and removed from the several boards 
of which be was a member, among others 
that for the encouragement of vaccination. 
This \-eneral)le philanthropist and patriot. 
\\hose last years were ])ersecute(l by the in- 
temperate zeal of political bigotry, died in 



Paris in 1827, at the age of eighty-one years, 
ilis life, by his son, was published the same 
year. British hatred for Americans. 

He set out from Philadelphia in May, 
and passed through the state of Pennsyl- 
vania into ("anada. On the 25th of July he 
arrived at Oswego, on his return from 
("anada, where he learned that American 
vessels sailed from that place less frequently 
during the harvest than at other times, which 
would probably occasion him some delay. 
■'Being both impatient to quit the English 
dominions," he says, "and afraid to incur 
too great an expense by hiring a whole ship 
for ourseh-es, we were walking in some de- 
gree of per]ilexity, on the bastion along the 
shore, when we disci ivcrod a vessel approach- 
ing. 

"The soldiers, who have learned hatred 
and contempt of the .Americans along with 
the manual exercise, i)erceiving the atten- 
tion with which we observed her approach, 
?aid to us: 'Why, gentlemen, that is nothing 
— she is but a vessel of the d — d Yankees ;' 
and it was exactly a vessel of the Yankees 
we wished to obtain. Mr. \'an.\llen, an 
American, who resides in the \icinity of 
Albany, commantled the vessel: he came on 
shore shortly after to procure some fresh 
])rovisions of which he stooil in need, and 
to cure himself of the intermittant fever, that 
he bad caught in the woods. From want of 
an inn. he had no opportunity of buying any 
at the fort : the ofiicers might ha\e easily 
supplied him with some \cgetables: in the 
opinion of a British officer, it is neither 
necessary nor decent to succor a Yankee. 

">Ir. \'an.\llen, although thus disap- 
l)ointed in his hope of finding in Oswego the 
necessary succor for his recovery, yet prom- 
ised us two places in his vessel. They set 



1 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



301 



sail the next day and "it took main- days to 
make our trip to Albany. 

"Mr. \'an.-\l!en, in whose \essel we totik 
passage, is a member of the congress for the 
county of .\ll)aiiy in the state of X'ew York. 
He is also a geometer and surveyor. His 
age, and no doubt, his talents, seem to have 
procured him the confidence of his country. 
He is charged with the commission of sur- 
veying upwards of half a million of acres, 
situated on Lake Ontario, and tlie River St. 
Lawrence. Mr. Van Allen is justice of the 
peace, and for this reason styled 'Squire' 
by his people, if he does not swear at them. 
He is about fifty years old, is said to possess 
a tolerable store of infomiation, and seems 
in fact to be a worthy and intelligent man." 

The Mr. VanAllen mentioned was John 
E. \'anAllen, who was a well known and 
prominent man in All)any county about the 
close of the Revolution, and for many years 
thereafter, he rc])resented Albany county in 
congress from 1793 to 1799, and was in 
private life a civil engineer and surveyor, in 
which calling he attained a high reputation. 
Congressman \'an.\llen was a half-lirother 
of President Martin \^an Buren, and is the 
congressman of that name mentioned by 
Washington Ir\ing in a letter to Jesse 
Alerwin. of Kinderhook (the original of 
Ichabod Crane) in his "Life and Letters," 
by I'ierre M. Ir\ing. .V number of very 
interesting letters and papers left by Mr. 
Van Allen have heretofore appeared in this 
(lc])artment. — Ed. 

Jnlm E. Van Allen mentioned above was 
great-uncle of Cornelius Van.Mlen. the 
subject of this review, and it may be with 
])ride that the direct connections are made to 
such worthy men. who have done so much 
in making good history for .\merica. 



ITORATTO W. \'AX DOREX. 

Horatio W. Wan Doren is a representa- 
tive of one of the old families, not only of 
this county, where his people located at an 
early day, but also of the country, for his 
ancestors came to America from Holland in 
early colonial days and settled in New Jer- 
sey, where they became \ery prominent. 
They founded the Dutch Reformed churcli 
in Xew Jersey and many of the early repre- 
sentatixes of the family are buried around 
that church. Their descendants are now 
scattered throughout the various states of 
the Union. John W. \'an Doren, the father 
of our subject, was torn at Millstone. Xew 
Jersey, in the house which General George 
\\'ashington made his headquarters during 
the Revolutionary war. The hou.se is 
still standing just as it was at that time, 
with its old lire])lace and andirons and prim- 
iti\e furniture, including the old tall clock, 
wliich struck the quarters of an hour with 
chimes ringing out different tunes. During 
the Revolutionary war this clock was Ijuried 
in the bcjttom of the Rariton' river. Mr. Van 
Doren's great-grandmother had two verv 
frightful experiences at that time, being 
twice hung in her own cellar, first bv the 
Elessians, but fortunatcl\- she \\ as discovered 
by a negro servant before much harm was 
done, and later when hung by the Tories she 
was again saved. The British were then in 
possession of Millstone. 

On leaving his native state, in 1817, 
John W. \'an Doren came to Xew York and 
look up his abode in Seneca county. In 1S30 
he ronioNcd to the town of Hector, in what 
was then Tomi)kins county, but is now 
Schuyler county, and turned his attention 
to agricultural pursuits, which he carried on 



302 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



success fully until his death, in 1876. He 
married }iJiss ^lary Thomas, whose father 
\\as one of the heroes of the Revolution, 
valiantly aiding in the struggle for inde- 
pendence. Unto this worthy couple were 
born se\en children : Maria, Leah, Thomas, 
Hellen, William H., Horatio W. and 
Augusta. Of this number two are still liv- 
ing. Leah and Horatio. 

For more than three score years and ten 
Horatio W. \'an Doren has lived in Schuy- 
ler county, his birth having occurred in the 
town of Hector, on the 7th of December, 
183 1, and under the parental roof he spent 
the days of his boyhood and youth. He 
pursued his early education in the sub- 
scription schools, for at that time the public 
school system had not been instituted in this 
portion of the state. .\t the age of twenty- 
two he left school and turned his attention 
to farming. He had already had consider- 
able experience in this line through the as- 
sistance which he gave his father. He aided 
in clearing twelve acres of land on his 
father's farm and when twenty-five years of 
age he left home and started out on an in- 
dependent business career. That occupation 
to which he had been reared he has made 
his life work. He began farming in his na- 
tive town of Hector, and has always lived 
there. .\bi)nt 1877 he purchased his present 
place, comprising fourteen acres of land, all 
of which is placed in fruit. The improve- 
ments upon the farm have all been placed 
tliere by Mr. Van Doren. He has many 
kinds of fruit of good grades, and is con- 
stantly endeavoring to improve the kinds 
of fruit which he raises, to that his 
products find a ready sale upon the market, 
because of the size, cpiality and flavor. He is 
regarded as one of the substantial, progres- 
sive and enterprising horticulturists of his 



township, and a visit to his fann is always 
of interest. 

On the 13th of November, 1855, Mr. 
Van Doren was united in marriage to Miss 
Elizabeth Angeline Elliott, a daughter of 
George and PZlizabeth (Wright) Elliott, and 
a nati\e of Schoharie county. New York, 
born on the ist of February, 1830. Her 
maternal grandfather. George \\'right. ^\as 
a soldier of the war of 181 2, enlisting in the 
American army from Schoharie county. 
New York, and remaining with his com- 
mand until the close of hostilities. L'nto 
Mr. and ]\Irs. V'an Doren were bom three 
children. Charles F. married Emma Dusen- 
berry, and died at the comparatively early 
age of thirty-two years, leaving a widow 
and two children, Grace and J. Ward, but 
the latter was drowned on the 22(1 of Febru- 
ary, 1900, when eleven years of age. Carrie, 
the second member of the family, is a lady of 
talent and culture, who for sixteen years 
has devoted her attention to teaching, being 
connected with the primary department of 
the L'nion school at liurdett, where she has 
now taught for fourteen years. She seems 
naturally adapted to this work, and has been 
very successful, winning tlie confidence of 
her pupils. Jennie is the wife of Nelson Van 
Doren. and resides at the birthplace of her 
grandfather, in Millstone, New Jersey. 

Mr. Van Doren was at one time a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, being affiliated with the lodge at Bur- 
dett. In his religious faith he is a Presby- 
terian, holding membership in the church in 
Burdett in which he has long been honored 
with offices, having served as a deacon, 
while at the present time he is filling the po- 
sition of elder. At one time he gave his sup- 
port to the Know Nothing party, but is now 
a Dejnocrat, and ^•oted for President 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



303 



Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Van Doren are 
most highly respected residents of the com- 
munity in which they live and have many 
friends in this portion of the county. He 
has always been public spirited, taking an 
active interest in whatever tends to promote 
the welfare of the county and its progress 
along' substantial lines of improvement, lie 
has always li\'ed here and is therefore widely 
known. He is still an active factor in busi- 
ness afifairs and his record should put to 
shame manj- a man of younger years, who, 
grown weary of the struggle of business 
life, would relegate to others the burdens 
that he should bear. Mr. \':m Doren has 
always been a busy and industrious man, 
and in the supervision of his fruit raising 
interests he is now gaining a good annual 

income. 

♦-•-• 

EDMUND PARKER. 

Edmund Parker, now deceased, was a 
leading business man of Watkins, actively 
associated with its building interests, and his 
honesty and reliability made him a valued 
representative of industrial life here. He 
was born in England, March 25, 1813, his 
parents being Edward and Elizabeth (Nor- 
ris) Parker. He spent the first fifteen years 
of his life in his native country and then bade 
adieu to friends and native land, sailing for 
the new world. He took up his abode in 
Utica, New York, and in the year 1858 came 
to Schuyler county. In eirly life he learned 
the trade of a carpenter and joiner and 
throughout his business career he carried on 
that pursuit. When a young man lie followed 
carpentering in Rochester, New York, and 
later became a factor in the building interests 
of Watkins, where many substantial struct- 
ures still stand as monuments to his thrift. 



enterprise and diligence. He always lived 
faithfully up to the terms of a contract, was 
trustworthy and prompt and enjoyed in a 
high degree the confidence of the public. 

Mr. Parker was first married in 1838 to 
Jane Isabelle Stringer, by whom he had four 
children, namely: Elizabeth, the wife of 
Charles B. Newell, of Watkins, who was a 
member of Company D, One Hundred and 
Sixty-first New York \'oIuntecr Infantry 
during the Civil war ; Mary, the wife of John 
Hendy, also a resident of Watkins; Clara, 
deceased, who was the first wife of Joha 
Hendy ; and James, a general contractor and 
shipbuilder now living in Milwaukee, Wis- 
consin. The mother of these children died in 
1862, when about forty-two years of age. 

On the 1 8th of January, 1865, Mr. Park- 
er was united in marriage to Mary Jane 
Tracy, who was born in Coxsackie, Greene 
county, New York, July 29, 1842, a daugh- 
ter of John and Alice (McGuire) Tracy. 
Her father was born in county Kilkenny, 
Ireland, about 1800, and came to America in 
1831. Here he married a former school- 
mate, a Miss Talbot, by whom he had one 
daughter, Ellen Louise, who married Cap- 
tain George R. Bill and resides in New 
Haven, Connecticut. After the death of his 
first wife Mr. Tracy married .Mice McGuire, 
and to them were born two children who 
reached years of maturity, the older being 
Mrs. Parker. Her brother, John B. Tracy, 
was born in Stanwich, now Rome, Oneida 
county, New York, July 5, 1844, and died 
uimiarried, being killed in Chemung county, 
March 29, 1879. He always followed the 
vocation of a traveling salesman. He served 
throughout the Civil war as a member of 
Company M, Second New York \'olunteer 
Artillery, and afterward joined the standing 
army. 



304 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Unto Mr. and IVIr. Parker were born nine 
children : John Tracy, a resident of Wat- 
kins, who married Elsie White, of the town 
of Dix, and has two children. Alary Jane 
and Doris Elizabeth ; William and Charles, 
who have both passed away; Josiah D., who 
married Ellen Seigler, of Geneva, and now 
lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he is 
engaged in painting, paper-hanging and 
decorating; two, who tlied in infancy; Ellen 
Louise, who resides with her mother in Wat- 
kins; Edmund X., who married Katherine 
Harvey and is a representative of the .Ameri- 
can Bridge Company, living in Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania; and Edith M., the wife of 
John Mason, of Elmira, who is assistant 
superintendent of the Prudential Company 
and resides in Corning, New York. 

Mr. Parker was a member of the Odd 
I'"ello\vs lodge at Watkins and in politics was 
largely independent, although in matters of 
national importance he ga\e his support to 
the Republican party. All who knew him 
regarded him as a man wortiiy of respect be- 
cause he was honorable in business, loyal in 
citizenship and faithful in friendship. He 
passed away May 18, 1890, his death being 
deeply mourned by a large circle of friends. 

In childhood Mrs. Parker accompanied 
her parents on their removal to Rome, New 
York, where she pursued her education in the 
public schools, but her father and mother 
died when she was quite young and her op- 
portunities in school were limited. In 1S88 
.she embarked in the millinery business in 
Watkins. establishing a store in the business 
center of the town, where she remained until 
1901, when, on account of her health, she 
removed her stock of goods to her home on 
Fifth street, where she is now doing business. 
In cunnection with her millinery goods she 
also carries hosierv, ladies' furnishings and 



children's dresses and is doing a good and 
profitable business. In the town she is widely 
known and her circle of friends is an exten- 
sive one. 



IGNATZ HAUBNER. 

Ignatz Ilaubner, one of the successful 
young business men of Watkins, now con- 
ducting a baker\- on iM-anklin street, was 
born in Boehmischdorf, Bohemia, Austria, 
on February i, 1870, and is a son of Aton 
and Anna (Bergman) Haubner. The father 
was a farmer and the family lived in a small 
German village, where the subject of this 
rc\iew attended school until he was fourteen 
\-ears of age, when he began to learn the 
baker's trade, serving an apprenticeship of 
two and one-half years without receiving any 
pecuniar}- ccjmpensation for his labors. He 
afterward worked for a time as a journey- 
man and then, when a young man of eighteen 
years, thinking to better his financial condi- 
tion in the new world, he crossed the Atlantic 
to America, settling lirst in Rochester, New 
York, where he worked for a time as a jour- 
neyman. During the three years in which 
he was thus employed he .saved much of his 
wages and then went to Clifton Springs, 
where he also worked for a year. He next 
came to ^^'atkins in 1893, and after six 
months purchased the shoji in which he is 
now doing business, his trade being a profita- 
ble one constantly increasing both in extent 
and importance. 

On the 27th of May, 1898, in W^atkins, 
Mr. Haubner was married to Miss Edith 
Williams, of this village, a native of New- 
field, Tompkins county. New York, and a 
daughter of De iMirest and Carrie (Van 
Gonliiii) Williams. The mother died when 



I 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



305^ 



Mrs. Haubner was but two years of age; but 
tlie fatlier is still living and makes his home 
with his (laughter. Unto our subject and his 
wife have been born two children : Jo- 
sephine Anna, who was born Sc|)tember 9, 
1899; and Estella Catherine, born April 8, 
1901. 

After coming to the United States Mr. 
Haubner took out naturalization papers and 
for a time voted with the Republican party, 
but is now a Democrat. When fifteen years 
of age he was confirmed in the Catholic 
church. His thorough understanding of his 
trade, his close application and his business 
abilities have enabled him to rise from a 
humble financial position until he is now suc- 
cessfully engaged in a well established busi- 
ness in Watkins. Though born across the 
water, he is thorough]}- American in thought 
and feeling and is patriotic and sincere in his 
love for the stars and stripes. His career 
is identified with the history of Watkins, 
where he has acquired a competence and 
where he is an honored and respected citizen. 



CL.\RE.\'CE DICKEXS. 

Clarence Dickais, a farmer of Montour 
townshij), is a native of the town of Catha- 
rine, Schuyler county, his birth having oc- 
curred there on the 27th of March, 1852. 
His father, Robert Dickens, was born in 
Hector. After arriving at years of ma- 
turity he wedded Lydia Beebe. Their chil- 
dren were: Clarence, Josephine, Lucy, Ida 
L. and Edith E. The eldest daughter is 
now the wife of Fred Tucker, a resident of 
Newfield, and tiiey have three children, Ly- 
dia, lunniet and l.uelia. The second named 
is the wife of Dewit Ilar\ev, a resident of 



Mechlenburg. Edith E. Dickens became the 
wile of 1-rank H-..rvey, also a resident of 
Mechlenburg. 

I'o the common school system of his na- 
tive county, Clarence Dickens is indebted for 
the educational privileges which he received 
and which he pursued until sixteen years of 
age, wlien he entered upon his business ca- 
reer. He began threshing and farming and 
has followed those two pursuits continu- 
ously since, with the result that through his 
industry and capable management he has 
won a good living and is now accounted one 
of the substantial farmers of his locality. 
He married Hulda Depew and they became 
the parents of two children, Howard and 
Emily. The latter is now living with her 
aunt, in Cayuta, New York. The mother 
died on the 19th of March, 1887, and about 
ten years later Mr. Dickens was again mar- 
ried, his second union being with Mary J. 
Doolittle, on the 4th of .\pril, 1897. She 
was the widow of John Doolittle, who was 
born in the town of Newfield, Tompkins 
county. New York, in 1828. He acquired 
a common-school education which he com- 
pleted at th.e age of sixteen years. His wife 
was born in the year 1838 and their chil- 
dren were. Jay, Frank. Fred, Edith, Charles, 
and Evelyn. Jay. who is now li\ing in l-^ir- 
mer. New York, married Carrie Bennett and 
they have two children, Oliver and Walter. 
Frank, a resident of Michigan, wedded 
]\Iary Turner, and they have two children, 
Lottie and Helen. Fred, who makes his 
home in Farmer, New York, wedded Kate 
W'ood, and their children are Albert and 
Hazel. Edith is the wife of William draves. 
of Montour Falls, and they have one son, 
Elmer. Mrs. Dickens was a daughter of 
Ezra and Caroline (Lanning) Tucker. Her 
father was Ixirn in the town of 0\id. New 



3o6 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



York, in 1827, and followed blacksmithing 
for a half century. His children were as 
follows: Marj- Jane is now Mrs. Dickens. 
William, who was born in 1840. now resides 
in Enfield, where he follows farming. He 
was married in 1864 to Delia Hosmer, and 
their children are, Carrie, the wife of Frank 
Beardsley; Adeline, at home; Olive, the wife 
of John Ritemore, by whom she has one 
daughter, Delia; and Jennie. Albert, the 
next member of the Tucker family, is de- 
ceased. Smith was the fourth in order of 
birth. Ezra, Charles and Amos are all de- 
ceased. 

At the time of his second marriage Clar- 
ence Dickens and his wife began keeping 
house at the place \\here they now li\e in 
Montour township, three miles from Mon- 
tour Falls. Here they have a pleasant home 
which is celebrated for its gracious hospital- 
ity, and Mr. Dickens is devoting his energies 
with creditable success to the work of the 
farm which he has placed under a high state 
of cultivation and supplied with all modem 
equipments and accessories. 



\MLLTAM J. MORAN. 

William J. Moran is general superin- 
tendent of the estate of Colonel John Magee 
and Mrs. E. S. Magee, of Watkins. He was 
born at Painted Post, Steuben county, New- 
York, March 29, 1863, and is a son of James 
and Ann (Olcott) Moran, both of whom 
were natives of county Sligo, Ireland, and 
Avere bom in the year 1822. In the county 
of their nativity they were reared to adult 
age and were there married, coming to 
America soon after their marriage in the 
year 1847. For a time they lived among the 



Quakers on Long Island, but when a year 
or two had passed, they removed to 
Steuben county, New York, where the father 
was employed by Mr. Hodgeman as general 
gardener. Later he became acquainted with 
John Magee, at Bath, New York, and with 
him came to Watkins, occupying the po- 
sition which is now filled by our subject, and 
in that capacity he served until his death, 
which occurred in the year 1884. His wife 
was of Scotch ancestry, although bom on 
the Emerald isle, and her death occurred in 
the year 1900. 

William J. Moran, of this review, was 
brought to Watkins by his parents during 
his infanc)', and in the common schools he 
acquired a fair English education. Enter- 
ing upon his business career he worked upon 
the Magee estate, and as his years and efifi- 
ciency increased, greater responsibilities 
were entrusted to him and now he is general 
superintendent. He has remained continu- 
ously upon this state with the exception of 
a period of eight years, and his business 
ability and fidelity are recognized by those 
whom he serves and who place in him the 
utmost confidence as a man of executive 
force, keen discrimination and trustworthi- 
ness, 

Mr, Moran was married in Watkins on 
the 20th of Decemlier, 1893, to Miss Jo- 
hanna Foley, who was born in Bingham- 
ton. New York, a daughter of John and 
Mary (Hughes) Foley, Two children were 
born unto them, Louise and Margaret, Iiut 
on the 28th of January, 1900, the wife and 
mother was called to her final rest, 

Mr. Moran was reared in the Roman 
Catholic church, being confirmed when 
about thirteen years of age. He cast his 
first presidential vote for Cleveland in 1884, 
and has since been a stalwart Democrat. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



307 



LTpon the ticket of his party he was elected 
trustee of W'atkins, in whicli position he is 
now serving for a second term, and for one 
year during his first term he was president 
of tlie lioard. He lias taken quite an active 
interest in politics, doing all in his power to 
promote the growth and insure the success 
of his party, and his labors have not been 
without good result to the Democracy. 



LEWIS BAILEY. 



Lewis Bailey has passed the seventy- 
seventh milestone on life's journey and he is 
one of the native sons of Schuyler county, 
who through many decades has been a wit- 
ness of the changes which have occurred 
here, of the work that has been carried on 
and the transformation that has been 
wrought. He has long been an active factor 
in agricultural circles, thus representing the 
leading industry of this portion of the state, 
Schuyler county being one of the garden 
spots of New York. 

Mr. Bailey was born September 23, 1825, 
in the town of Catlin, now Dix, his parents 
being Wilson and Fannie (Bump) Bailey. 
The father was bom in Connecticut, March 
3, 1799, and the mother's birth occurred in 
Madison county, New York, on the 8th of 
May, 1797. L'nto them were born the fol- 
lowing children : Alanson, Lucinda, Lorin- 
da, Sarah and Catharine, all deceased : 
Lewis; Candace; Mark; and Carrie. 

\Vhen Schuyler county was emerging 
from primitive conditions, such as are found 
in frontier settlements, when its citizens were 
reclaiming its lands and making it a valu- 
able farming district, Lewis Bailey was grow- 
ing to years of maturity in its nn'dst and in 



the early district schools he was pursuing his 
education, which he continued until he 
reachetl the age of eighteen. In the year 
1845, when he was twenty years of age, he 
chose a conipani(jn and helpmate for life's 
journey, wedding Miss B. Lavinia Alvord, 
a native of Waterville, Oneida county, New 
York, born in 1826. They became the par- 
ents of four children : Oscar Augustus, 
Frank, Frank Otis and Lucy, all of whom 
are now deceased. 

Mr. Bailey and his wife began their do- 
mestic life upon a farm in Schuyler county, 
removing in 1859 to one in Chanung county, 
which he continued to cultivate until 
after the beginning of the Civil war, when he 
went to the front. He did not enlist, but fell 
right into the ranks of the Thirteenth New 
York Volunteer Infantry under Colonel 
Quinby, and participated in the famous first 
battle of Bull Run. He was at the front for 
three months and then returned to his home. 
On the 2 1 St of August, 1862, he enlisted in 
the One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment, 
New York Volunteer Infantry, for three 
years' service, or during the war, and again 
proceeded southward, where he participated 
in the important battles of Missionary Ridge 
and Lookout Mountain, and Sherman's 
march to the sea, which added to the num- 
ber of victories achieved by the Union armies. 
He was ever a loyal soldier, true to the old 
flag and the cause it represented, and his 
valor was tested on many a field of battle. 

While he was at the front his wife died 
and after his return from the war he was 
again married, his second union being with 
Emily S. Claghorn, who was born in Erie 
county. New York, in 1842. fler father, 
James M. Claghorn, was born in Cumming- 
ton, Massachusetts, on the i6th of August, 
1S04. His wife bore the maiden name of 



3o8 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Electa Lvman and they had eight children, 
as follows: Josiah L., James A., Ellen E., 
Henrj^ Dwight, Emily S., Adelaide E., Lucia 
M. and Josephine. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Bailey was 
blessed with six cliildren : Julia E., a pro- 
fessional nurse in Rochester, Xew York; 
Kate R., who married Rev. George W. Hini- 
nan and is a missionary in China; Ruth A., 
who is also a professional nurse in Rochester ; 
Nellie F., who is employed as a bookkeeper 
by the firm of Sibley, Lindsay & Curr, of 
Rochester; George A., who is employed in 
connection with the operation of the electric 
light plant of Rochester; and Bertha E. 

Throughout his business career Lewis 
Bailey has carried on agricultural pursuits 
and in the evening of life he is now enjoying 
a competence which has come to him as the 
result of his former toil. He has a pleasant 
home supplied with all of the necessities and 
comforts of life and many of its luxuries. 
His study of the political issues and questions 
of the day has led him to give support to the 
Republican party since its organization, pre- 
vious to which he was a Whig. His church 
relation connects him with the Presbyterian 
denomination and it has ever been his life 
endeavor to make his career in consistent 
harmony with his professions. 



WILLIAM 



ELDERKIN 
WELL. 



LEFFIXG- 



William Elderkin LeCfingwell, the pres- 
ident and general manager of the Glen 
Springs, is the youngest son of Dr. Elisha 
Leffingwell, a distinguished physician of 
western New York, and was born at Aurora 
on Cayuga lake, July lo, 1855. He pre- 



pared for college in Cayuga Lake Acad- 
emy, and entered Cornell University in 
September, 1871, in the class of '75 but left 
before graduation to continue his studies in 
the collegiate department uf the Polytech- 
nic Institute in the city of Brooklyn. With 
the financial department of this institution, 
he became connected as registrar and cash- 
ier in 1875, remaining over seven years. 

In the summer of 1882, the sanitarium 
at Dansville having been destroyed by fire 
]\Ir. Lefiingwell was invited to join his 
brothers and cousins in the organization of 
a new institution (now known as the Jack- 
son Sanitarium) and of this he was treas- 
urer and manager for several years. In 
Januar}-, 1890, while visiting the site of the 
present famous resort at Watkins, he be- 
came convinced that with its singular 
variety of valuable mineral springs and 
magnificent situation, o\erlooking Seneca 
lake, it was an ideal place for a great 
health resort. He was so strongly im- 
pressed with the great advantages which 
the location offered that he abandoned 
an option which he and his brother then 
held upon the "^lurray Hill" property 
at ]\Iount Morris, New York, with the 
view of establishing a sanitarium there, 
and returning to Watkins, organizeil the 
Glen Springs Sanitarium Company and 
purchased the property, which under his 
management and direction has become so 
widely known as the Glen Springs. 

In iMasonry he has taken an active in- 
terest; — he is a Knight Tenii)lar, a Thirty- 
second degree Mason — and in 1897 was 
district deputy grand master of the twen- 
tietli ^lasonic district of the state of New 
York. He is a member of the Mystic 
Shrine, of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, 
the Hamilton Club of Brooklvn. the Craft- 




W. E, LEFFINGWELL 



K 
M 



w 
z 

w 

JO 

o 




THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



311 



men's Club of New York, the Rochester 
Club, the Elmira City Club, the Coming 
Club, and the^ Society of the Sons of the 
American Revolution. His ancestry- on 
both sides were prominent in colonial af- 
fairs, eight of his ancestors being Rc\olu- 
tionar}' patriots. 

In 1884, ^Ir. Leftingwell was elected 
president of the village of Dansvillc. He 
was elected a meniljer of the board of trus- 
tees of the village of Watkins in 1899, be- 
coming president of the board in 1901, and 
in 1902 under an amendment to the village 
chartei" he was elected the first pnsident of 

the village. 

♦-•-♦ 

GEORGE CHASE BICKXELL, D. D. S. 

The state of New York with its pul- 
sing industrial activities and rapid de- 
velopment has attracted within its con- 
fines men of marked ability and high 
character in the various professional lines, 
and in this way progress has been con- 
served and social stability fostered. He 
whose name initiates this review has 
gained recognition as one of the able and 
successful dentists of the state, and by his 
labors, his high professional attainments and 
his sterling characteristics has justified the 
respect and confidence in which he is held 
by the dental fraternity and the local public. 

Dr. George Chase Bicknell, a son of 
Isaiah and Patience Chase, was born in Og- 
den, Monroe county, New York, October 20, 
1850. At the death of his parents, when 
about one year of age, he was placed in the 
orphan asylum at Rochester and afterward 
formally adopted by Caleb H. Bicknell, of 
Watkins, who died a few years later. He 
has one brother who served as a soldier of 

18 



I he Civil war, enlisting first from Niagara 
and afterward from Lansing, Michigan. 
The Doctor attended Normal School in 
Brockport, this state, and afterward Ijecame 
a student in the Normal School in Geneseo, 
New York, thus completing his literary 
education. Turning his attention to farm- 
ing, he was engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits for ten years and tiien, having re- 
solved to enter upon the practice of den- 
tistry, he becnme a student in the office and 
under the direction of Dr. Luther T. Dick- 
enson, of Lockport, Niagara county, New 
York. He was licensed to practice, passing 
an examination before the state board in 
1879, and opened an office in Albion, Or- 
leans county, X^ew York, where he remained 
for four years. His eyesight then failed and 
through the succeeding- four years he was 
largely retired from practice. In 1888, how- 
ever, he established an office in Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania, whence, in 1892, he removed 
to Watkins, where he has since lived, being 
successfully engaged in the performance of 
his professional duties. 

On the 18th of March. 1890. Dr. Bick- 
nell married Miss I'lorenceMcEllven. a 
daughter of William Henry and Carrie 
Matilda (Gourley) McEllven. Her father 
and some of her uncles were valued soldiers 
of the L'nion army in the Civil war. Mrs. 
Bicknell is a natix'e of Genesee county, New 
\ ork, and is an estimal)le lady, who presides 
with gracious hospitality over her pleasant 
home. The Doctor is a valued and prom- 
inent member of Canadasaga Lodge, No. 
196, I. O. O. F., and of Jefferson Lodge, 
!•'. & .\. M. He has passed all of the chairs 
in the former and is now acting past grand. 
He also belongs to Che(|uaga Tribe of Red 
Men. in which he has filled all of the offices 
and is now. past sachem. In his political be- 



312 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



lief he is a stalwart Republican, and he is 
a me-nber of the Baptist church. The Doc- 
tor has strong regard for professional ethics, 
and in the practice of his profession has 
gained the recognition of the dental frater- 
nity as well as of the public. He reads 
broadly, comprehensively and understaud- 
ingly, and is thus continually adding to his 
knowledge and promoting his efficiency as 
a representative of one of the most im- 
portant callings to which man can devote his 



IRA B. :\IEEKS. 



Ira B. Meeks has passed the eighty-sec- 
ond mile-stone on life's jounrey, and is to- 
day a respected and venerable citizen of 
Schuyler county, highly esteemed because 
his life has ever Ijeen upright and worthy 
of regard. He was born in Dryden, Tomp- 
kins county, Xew York, October 12, 1820, 
and is a son of Daniel and Sarah (Broas) 
Meeks, both of whom were natives of 
Dutchess county, this state, but little is 
known of the family, as at the age of twelve 
years our subject went to live with his 
grandfather, his father having remo\-ed to 
Michigan. The latter was a farmer by oc- 
cupation. 

During his boyhood and youth Ira B. 
Mecks acquired a common-school education 
and later entered upon his business career 
by learning the blacksmith's trade at Enfield 
Center, Tompkins county. He remained at 
that place for six years, following his chosen 
pursuit and on the expiration of that period 
lie removed to Howard, Steuljen county. 
New York, which w-as also his place of 
abode for six years. He next disposed of his 
smithy there and returned to Enfield, where 



he conducted a shop for four years, and then 
came to the town of Cayuta, where he had 
a blacksmith shop for eighteen years. Dur- 
ing that time he enjoyed a large patronage 
because he had thoroughly mastered the bus- 
iness, his expert workmanship securing for 
him a large trade. He is obliging and re- 
liable, and these qualities have been im- 
portant factors in his success. At length he 
sold his property in Cayuta and removed to 
Montour Falls, where he has since engaged 
in business. He continues to work at his 
trade, and although now eighty-two years of 
age, he is one of the best preserved old men 
in the county. 

Mr. Meeks has been twice married, his 
first wife being Jane Ann Smith, by whom 
he had three children, namely : Chauncy, 
Charles and Cora S., who are still living. 
For his second wife he wedded Sarah E. 
House, and one child, Seward E., graces 
this unoin. Through many decades Mr. 
Meeks has been a witness of the coiuity's 
progress and advancement and has ever 
taken a deep interest in what has been ac- 
complished, keeping in touch with the times. 
His life has been honorable, his actions 
manly, his conduct sincere and his word 
;ibove question, and today, among the ven- 
erable residents of Schuyler county, he cer- 
tainlv deserves to be mentioned. 



GEORGE W. GOULD. 

Throughout his entire life George W. 
Gould has been a resident of the Empire 
state. He was bom May 4, 1859, in the town 
of Catlin, Steuben county, and is a son of 
Jacob and Susan (Cable) Gould. The father 
was a native of New Jersey and at an early 



I 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



3'3 



day he removed from Sussex county, that 
state, to the Empire state, settling in tlie town 
of Cathn, four miles north of Big Flats, Xew 
York. Here he remained throughout his re- 
maining days. He was united in marriage to 
Miss Susan Cable and they became the par- 
ents of the following children : Hilary, Will- 
iam, Nick, George, Harriet, Grant, James, 
Henry, Benjamin, Giddie, Ella and Satie. 

Under the parental roof George W. 
GouUl was reared to manhood and his father 
prepared him for the practical duties of life 
by sending him to the common schools, where 
he acquired a good English education. He 
has always made his home in this part of the 
state and is a man of genuine worth whose 
entire life has been in harmony with his pro- 
fession as a member of the Methodist church. 
In his political views he is a Rq^ublican, but 
has never sought or desired oftice, although 
he keeps well informed on the issues and 
questions of the day that concern the welfare 
and policy of the nation. In 1887 he was 
united in marriage to Miss Nancy Stokes, of 
Catlin. They had two children, Clementine 
and Fannie, the latter now deceased. Mr. 
Gould is a citizen of worth, taking an active 
interest in all that pertains to general progress 
and improvement along material, social, in- 
tellectual and moral lines. His word has 
ever been as good as his bond, his integrity 
standing as an unquestioned fact in his 
career. 



PETER OSCAR SUTPHEN. 

Seventy-three years ago Peter Oscar 
Sutphen was born upon the farm in the town 
of Hector, where he is now living. The 
place is therefore endeared to him through 
recollections of bovhood as well as the as- 



sociations of later years. His natal day was 
September 22, 1829, and his parents were 
Peter and Rebecca (Matthews) Sutphen. 
His father settled in the town of Hector 
about 1795, coming to this portion of the 
state from Monmouth county. New Jersey. 
There were no railroads at that time and he 
thereiore crossed the country on horseback. 
A young man of twenty-two j-ears he then 
desired to make a home in what was then a 
fnintier district. He took up a farm of three 
hundred and sixty acres of land and later 
sold his rights to that property and pur- 
chased other land. When the country again 
became involved in war with Great Brit- 
ain, he was drafted for service in the 
American army, and went to Buffalo, 
continuing with his command until after the 
cessation of hostilities. He lived to see a 
rcmarkalile growth in this section of New 
York. This district has Ijeen divided into 
four counties, and he witnessed the trans- 
formation of its wild land into fine and 
producti\e farms which became the homes 
of a contented and prosperous people. He 
bore his part of the work of improvement 
and was well known in the first half of the 
nineteenth century. 

When about six years of age, Mr. Sut- 
phen, of this review, entered the subscrip- 
tion schools and there gained a knowledge 
of the branches of English learning usually 
taught at that time. Later he turned his at- 
tention to farming. For one year he was a 
student in the high school at Danby, New 
York, i'lu-oughout his entire manhood be 
has carried on agricultural pursuits in 
Schuyler county, with the exception of a 
period of three \ears. In 1856 he went west, 
spending one year in Illinois and two years 
in Iowa, being engaged in the hotel business 
in Rockford, Illinois, and afterward in In- 



314 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



dependence, Iowa. However, he became 
convinced that he hked Scuyler county the 
best as a place of residence, and upon re- 
turning- liere he once more resumed farming 
on tlie old home place, where he has since 
li\ed. Under his careful supervision the 
land has been well tilled and the fields have 
yielded him good returns for the care and 
labor bestowed upon them. 

As a companion and helpmate for life's 
journey, ■Mr. Sutphen chose Miss Phoebe 
Jane Jaquish, their wedding being celebrated 
on the 23d of February, 1853. The lady was 
born in the town of Hector on the i8th of 
July, 1830, her parents Ijeing Matthias J. 
and Phoebe (Reynolds) Jaquish. This mar- 
riage was blessed with six children. Mat- 
thias J., the eldest, died at the age of ten 
months. Charles M. is now residing at 
North Plector. Myron R. is acting as man- 
ager of his father's farm. Anna ^lay died 
in November, 1901, at the age of thirty-nine 
years and seven months. Dora died at the 
age of twenty months. Minnie M. is now the 
wife of Reginald G. McLaughlin, a resident 
of LFarri-sburg, Pennsylvania. For almost 
a half centiuy !Mr. and ^Irs. Sutphen have 
traveled life's journey together, their mutual 
love and confidence increasing as the years 
have gone by, bringing to them the joys and 
the sorrows, the prosperity and adversity 
which fall to the lot of all human families. 

In 1901 Mr. Sutphen suffered a stroke 
of paralysis which has largely rendered his 
left side useless. He has l)een a man of iron 
will, of strong constitution, equalled by an 
ambition as great. His marked energy and 
determination have enabled him to success- 
fully carry on his work, and to secure for his 
family many of the comforts of life. In 
1852 he cast his first presidential vote. Four 
years later he cast his ballot for John C. 



I'remont, the first candidate of the new Re- 
publican party, and since that time he ha.s 
never wa\ered in his allegiance to the party 
and its principles. He has been honored 
with a number of local offices, the duties of 
which he has discharged with promjjtness 
and fidelity. For six years he served as as- 
sessor and for nine years or three terms he 
was overseer of the poor. Religiously he 
and his family have been identified with the 
Presbyterian church of Hector for many 
years. He was also a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, of the 
Grangers, and of the Independent Order of 
Good Templars, the last named indicating 
his attitude on the temperance question. He 
is now practically living a retired life upon 
liis valuable farm of one hundred and thirty 
acres. This is one of the valuable tracts of 
land in the township, ha\ing been largely 
made so through the untiring efforts and en- 
terprise of Mr. Sutphen. 



CHARLES AIUNSON SUTPHEN. 

Charles I\Iunson Sutphen, a son of Peter 
Oscar ;uid Jane (Jaquish) Sutphen, was 
born in the town of Hector. July 23. 1858, 
and is now widely and favorably known 
there as the proprietor of the leading hotel, 
the Exchange Hotel, of North Hector. In 
the district schools he acquired his educa- 
tion which he completed at the age of eight- 
een, although during the last six years of 
that time he was only enabled to spend a few 
months each year in .school. Subsequently 
he engaged in threshing for one year, after 
w hich he went to Toledo, Ohio, where he se- 
cured work as a pile driver. 

.\ vear later, however, he returned to 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



3'5 



Schuyler county, and was liere married, on 
the 26th of April, 18S2, to Miss Sadie H. 
Hull, a daughter of Emniett and Abigail 
(Cudd) Hull. Seven children have l)cen 
born of this union : Bessie, Helen. Abigail, 
Oliver, Earl, Thomas and Ruth, and the 
family circle yet remai'ns unbroken by the 
hand of death, all of the children being still 
under the parental roof. 

After returning from the west ^Ir. Sut- 
phen workeil upon different farms for ten 
years, operating land on shares. With the 
capital he had acquired he then purchased 
a tract of land, but after four months he 
sold out anil purchased the Exchange Hotel 
at North Hector, it is a summer hotel, con- 
taining thirteen sleeping rooms and three of 
these rooms have two beds in them, so that 
he has altogether seventeen betls. He has 
conducted the hotel continuously since 1892. 
and receives a liberal patronage. The hos- 
telry is beautifully and pleasantly located 
within one hundred rods of the lake shore, 
and North Hector is considered one of the 
finest summer resorts along Seneca lake. It 
is located twelve miles distant from four dif- 
ferent towns. W'atkins, Trumansburg, Far- 
mersville and Ovid. Here all of the joys 
of a summer outing are to lie had, and Mr. 
Sutphen puts forth e\'ery effort in his power 
to please his patrons and secure their com- 
fort and pleasure. He also conducts a liv- 
ery Ixirn in connection with the hotel, and is 
agent for the Adriance-Platt Company, 
handling machinery. He has likewise been 
engaged in l)u\ing fruit for some time, ami 
in his various business interests he is meet- 
ing with creditable and well merited success. 
Mr. Sutphen belongs to Hector Lodge. Xn. 
311, K. P., and attends the services of the 
Baptist church. Politically he is a Republi- 



can and his support has \xen given entirely 
to the i)arty since he cast his first presidential 
ballot for General Cirant, at his first election. 



CHARLl-.S H. P.VTCHEX. 

Charles H. Patchen, whose earnest and 
indefatigable labors have made him one of 
the leading and successful farmers of Dix 
township, Schuyler county, was born on the 
14th of January, 1839, in Great Barrington, 
Massachusetts, and is a son of Harvey and 
Rachel (Brown) Patchen. His parents 
were also natives of the Old Bay state. The 
father was born in 1801 and in 1841 he 
l)rought his family to Schuyler county, New 
York, where he spent his remaining days, 
his death here occurring in the year 1856. 
By his marriage to Miss Brown he had the 
following children : Louisa, who is the wife 
of Dr. E. B. Wager, and resides in Nash- 
ville. Tennessee; Sarah, deceased wife of E. 
J'", (ianung, of Morcland : Rose Alpha, the 
wife of Rev. William Sharp, a resident of 
Rochester, !\ew ^'ork, by whom she has 
four children, William. Ella, Edith and 
Dewey; and Charles, of this review. 

In taking uj) the personal history of 
Charles H. Patchen, we present to our 
readers the life record of one who is widely 
and favorably kmiwn in Schuyler county, 
where almost his entire lite has been passed. 
He was only two years of age when brought 
hy his parents to this state and here he was 
reared and educated, spending his boyhood 
days under the parental roof, while in the 
iniblic .schools he gained a knowledge of the 
branches of English learning usually taught 
in such institutions. The familv home was 



3i6 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



in the town of Aloreland and there lie early 
became familiar with the task of cultivating 
and improving the fields, so that he gained 
experience in the work which he has since 
followed in order to provide for his own 
family. 

On the 3d of October, 1861, Mr. Patchen 
was united in marriage to Miss Angie Cor- 
win, a daughter of William G. Corwin, a 
native of New Jersey. Her mother bore the 
maiden name of Mary Christler, and had 
four children: Orlando F., William C, 
Oscar P. and Angie. By her marriage Mrs. 
Patchen became the mother of two children, 
Delia M., deceased; and Jay H. 

After the inauguration of the Civil war 
Mr. Patchen responded to the country's call 
for aid, enlisting with the boys in blue of 
Company B, One Hundred and Forty-first 
Regiment, of New York Volunteers, on the 
loth of September, 1862. He was under 
the command of Captain A. J. Compton and 
of Colonel Samuel G. Hathaway, and with 
his regiment he went to the front, there to 
serve for three years. He participated in 
many important aigagements, including the 
Atlanta campaign, and the celebrated march 
under General Sherman to the sea. Thai, 
on account of ill health, he was sent to the 
United States hospital in Jefifersonville, In- 
diana, and on the 22d of June, 1865, he re- 
turnerJ home, for the war had ended and 
his services were no longer needed. The 
country owes him and his comrades a debt 
of gratitude which can never be repaid, but 
the brave soldier boys will ever be honored 
as long as history endures and the story of 
their heroism and fidelity is told. 

Again locating in Schuyler county, Mr. 
Patchen resumed farming, which he has fol- 
lowed continuously since and he has pro- 
vided for his family a comfortal)le livintr 



and good home. True to the political party 
which stood as the defender of the Union in 
the dark days of Civil war, he has ever been 
an earnest Republican, believing firmly in 
the principles of the organization. He be- 
longs to Montour Post, No. 22, G. A. R., 
of Montour Falls, and his wife is connected 
with the Presbyterian church. 



J. WALLACE CORBETT. 

J. Wallace Corbett, a farmer and fruit 
raiser of the town of Reading, was born on 
the upper portion of the farm which is now 
his home, his natal day being January 7, 
1843, while his parents were Chester and 
Sally (LaFever) Corbett. The father was- 
I'orn in Massachusetts and the mother was 
a native of Seneca county. New York, and 
a daughter of Lewis La Fever. The sub- 
ject of this review is the youngest of a fam- 
ily of five children, four of whom are living: 
Otis, a prominent citizen of Schuyler 
county; Nancy, the wife of John W. War- 
ner, of Watkins, by whom she has two chil- 
dren ; and Charles, who wedded Mary Ann 
Breeze, by whom he had two children. Ma- 
tilda, the second of the family, became the 
wife of Kirtland Gilbert, and died in Mon- 
tour Falls, leaving five children. The par- 
ents of this family spent their last days at_ 
tiie home of their son, J. Wallace, the mother 
passing away in 1862, while the father died 
in 1899, and was laid to rest by the side of 
his wife in Lake Road cemetery. 

Under llic parental roof the subject of 
this review spent his boyhood days, and in 
the common schools he acquired his educa- 
tion, w hilc in the fields and meadows he was 
trained to the labors of the farm, assisting 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



3«7 



his fatlier until eighteen years of age, when 
he was given liis time and allowed to engage 
in business on his own account. The father 
became tofcilly blind, and our subject then 
assumed the management of tlie old home 
place, comprising one hundred acres. In 
1S62, wlien the country was engaged in 
Civil war, he entered the employ of the 
United States government, becoming con- 
nected with th.e construction company, with 
which he was sent to Nashville, remaining 
in its service for about one month, after 
which he was taken ill and returned home, 
receiving then an honorable discharge. 

Mr. Corbett continued to operate the 
home farm until his marriage, which oc- 
curred October 17, 1866, in the town of 
Reading, the lady of his choice being Miss 
Lucy M. Gabriel, a daughter of Plummer 
and Elizabeth (Cleveland) Gabriel. IMrs. 
Corbett was born on a farm adjoining the 
one where she now lives, July 26, 1847. 
while her father, a son of Alanson and Per- 
melia (Plummer) Gabriel, was a native of 
the town of Starkey, Yates county. The 
mother was bom in the town of Dix, near 
Moreland, Schuyler county, was a daughter 
of Luther and Eliza (Lee) Cleveland, and a 
distant relative of both President Cleveland 
and General Robert E. Lee. 

Mr. Corbett received from his father 
forty-five acres of the home farm, while 
fifty-five acres was given to his brother, 
Charles, and this latter tract our subject pur- 
cha.sed. In 1S73 he also bought sixty-eight 
acres, so that he now has a valuable farm of 
one hundred and sixty-two acres, upon 
which he is carrying on the work of raising 
grain and fruit. He has practical experi- 
ence in this line of activity and his energies 
arc bringing to him good harvests, his prod- 
ucts finding a ready sale upon the market. 



Tie is also interested in the breeding of 
horses, owning a fine pacing stallion. Double 
Hal, that is a light bay with large star and 
white hind ankles, sired by Royal Hal, 
2 :i9'4, his dam being Susie Bnjwn, 2 :20%. 
Double Hal is a natural pacer with a 2 :20 
gait, as a two-year-old. 

The home has been blessed with tliree 
children: Lee Cleveland, lx)rn October 21, 
:S67, was graduated in Cornell University 
with the class of 1890, afterward pursued a 
post-graduate course and is professor of 
horticulture for the L^nited States govern- 
ment at Washington, D. C, having charge 
of tlie Arhngton farm (m the Potomac river, 
just across from the capital city. He mar- 
ried Evelyn Northrop in the town of Dix 
Schuyler county, and they have four chil- 
dren, Ruth Eleanor, Frances L., Roger 
Bailey and Lawrence Northrop. Gabriel, 
the second son, was born December 21, 
1 87 1, and having graduated from the Balti- 
more Medical College, is now engaged in 
the practice of his profession at Hampton, 
Florida. He married Ida Jones, and is a 
member of the Masonic fraternit}-. Louis 
La Fever, born March 27, 1875, was grad- 
uated in the law department of the Univer- 
sity of \\'est Virginia, in the class of 1897, 
was admitted to the bar of both Georgia 
and West Virginia, and practiced in the 
former named state in the years 1898 and 
T899. 

Mr. Corl)ett, of this review, cast his first 
jiresidential ballot in \^^(^, and is an earnest 
Republican, never wavering in his allegiance 
to the party. In 1895 '^^ ^^'^^ elected justice 
of the peace and he has never tried a case in 
which a decision of his has been rc\ersed, 
a fact which is indicative of his ecpiity as a 
presiding judge. Formerly he was a mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal cIuutIi, and 



3i8 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



he belongs to the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. Having spent his entire life in 
this county, Mr. Corbett is widely known, 
and the salient features of his career have 
ever been such as to merit the confidence and 
good will of his fellow citizens. 



W "AI.Tl^K W". \-AXDERHOOF. 

Among the practitioners of dentistry in 
Watkins is Dr. ^^■alter Ward \^anderhoof, 
a young man thoroughly in touch with the 
progress which has characterized the pro- 
fession in recent years. He was born in 
Waterloo, New York, October 13, 1868, and 
is a son of \\'illiani Morris and Fannie 
(Ward) Vanderhoof. His father was a na- 
tive of New Jersey, and the mother's birth 
occurred in Buffalo. She was of English 
descent, while Mr. Vanderhoof was of Ger- 
man lineage, ^\'hen the question of slavery 
involved the country in Civil war, William 
M. Vanderhoof offered his services to the 
government as a defender of the Union. l)c- 
coming a member of the Twcnty-si.xth New 
Jersey Regiment. He continued with his 
command until seriously wounded at Chan- 
cellorsville. For two days and two nights he 
lay upon the battlefield and his injuries were 
so serious that it was necessary to ampu- 
tate his leg. Shortly after this he received 
an honorable discharge, being no longer fit- 
ted for field duty. 

At the usual age Dr. \'anderhoof began 
liis education, entering the schools of Seneca 
Falls. He pursued his studies in Miners 
Academy, where he comjjletcd his literary 
education and then as a prei)aration for pro- 
fessional life he entered the Philadelphia 
Dental College in 1803. ^'^ ''"-' uieantime. 



however, he had been a student in Olean 
Westbrook Commercial College, and return- 
ing to his home he was for two years a stu- 
dent in the oftice of Dr. Belcher, a dentist 
of Seneca Falls. He pursued a three years' 
course in the Philadelphia College, being 
graduated in 1896, and he received a special 
certificate for work done in the Philadelphia 
School of Anatomy. In 1897 he was 
licensed to practice and, coming to Watkins, 
opened an ofifice, buying out a dentist already 
established here. He soon demonstrated his 
al)ility in the line of his profession and is 
accorded a good practice, making him one 
of the successful professional men of the 
town. 

On the 15th of September, 1897, the 
Doctor was married to Miss JeSsie Rider 
Ellerby, a daughter of Thomas and Mary 
Rider Ellerby, and they have one son, 
Thomas \\'ard, who was born May 9, 1902. 
riie Doctor belongs to Watkins Lodge, of 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and 
is a member of the Episcopal church. His 
political support is given to the Republican 
])arty, but he has never been an aspirant for 
office, preferring to devote his energies to 
securing advancement professionally. He 
has Avon success through liis earnest pur- 
pose, broad knowledge and efficient . capa- 
bility. 

* ■ > 

WILLI.\M G. \\'ALLENBECK. 

William George Waller.beck, one oi the 
enterprising yoiuig business men of Watkins, 
is a representative of an honored pioneer 
f;uuily of Schuyler county, and from an 
early epoch in the de\eIopment of this por- 
tion of the state members of the Wallenbeck 
family ha\e Iieen active and helpful factors 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



319 



ill tlie suljstantial growtli aiul upbuilding. 
The grandfather of our subject was a native 
of Holland ami after crossing th.e Atlantic 
to the new woritl lie settled in Schuyler coun- 
ty, being one of the first residents of \\'at- 
kins. When he took up his abode there the 
site of the village was a wilderness and 
swamp, little of tiie land having been re- 
claimed for the purpose of cultivation ajid 
tiie county gave no indication of the transfor- 
mation which was soon to be wrought within 
its borders by the sturdy, resolute pioneer set- 
tlers. Mr. W^allenbeck settled on the east side 
of the lake, cleared a small tract of land of 
the rocks and built a log house, one of the 
primitive homes of the county. Fish and 
wild game were then \-ery plentiful and 
furnished many a meal for the early settlers. 
The grandfather of our subject continued the 
work of improving his place and in course of 
time transformed it into a productive farm. 

John Wallenbcck, the father of our sub- 
ject, was born in this countj-, and was here 
reared amid the wild scenes of pioneer life. 
He married Miss Edna Reddener, and unto 
them was Ix)rn but one child, the subject of 
this review. 

In Dundee. Xew York, in the year 1879, 
William George Wallenbeck was born and 
under the parental roof he spent the period 
of his youth, entering the common schools 
at the usual age and therein pursuing his 
studies until he had largely mastered the com- 
mon branches of English learning. When 
the country became engaged in war with 
Spain his patriotic spirit was aroused and he 
offered his services to the government in 
July, 1898. In the same year he returned to 
the Empire state, going lirst to Geneva and 
afterward to Penn Yan. From the latter 
place he came to Watkins, where he is now 
living. He has a bicycle store and repair 



shop ami in both branches of his business 
is meeting with success, having secured a 
liberal patronage. 

Mr. Wallenbeck was united in marriage 
to Miss Elthia, a daughter of Alford and 
]'rancalie (Hill) McConnell. She was the 
only cliild born to her parents. Like her 
husband she has many friends in Watkins, 
and their own pleasant home is most hospita- 
ble. Mr. Wallenbeck is a member of the 
Baptist church, and in his political affiliations 
he is a Republican, deeply interested in the 
growth and success of the party, A young 
man of undaunted spirit, strong character 
and laudable ambition, he has already won 
success which argues well for the future. 



FRANK F. IRISH. 



l~rank F. Irish, who is dealing in crock- 
fry, toys, stationery and sporting goods in 
Watkins, where he is accounted an enterpris- 
ing and prosperous merchant, was Iwrn in 
Paterson, Xew Jersey, October 12, 1858, his 
parents being Hugh C. and Betsy A. 
(Haight) Irish. The father was born in \'ic- 
tor\- township, Cayuga county. Xew \'ork, 
August 10, 1832, and when si.xteen years of 
age left his native place, going to Paterson, 
Xew Jersey, where his brother had secured 
him a position in the office of the "Guardian," 
a newspaper published in that town by L. R. 
Stelle. From office boy and newspaper car- 
rier he worked his way up to the position of 
foreman before he was twenty years of age 
and became an adept in all departments of 
the business. Leaving Paterson he was em- 
ployed as a journeyman printer in Xew York 
and other places, and finally returned to his 
native county, establishing a ]irinting office 



■?20 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



in Auburn. Xew York. On tlie 2d of April, 
1854, Mr. Irish was united in marriage to 
Miss Betsy Ann Haight. After some time 
spent in Auburn trying to establish himself 
in the newspaper business, he returned to 
Paterson, where he became a partner with 
Orin Durhop Van Derhover, in the publica- 
tion of the "Guardian" in May, 1856, and 
assisted in establishing a tri-weekly instead 
of a weekly. Later they startetl the first suc- 
cessful daily paper in Paterson. In 1862, 
however, Mr. Irish sold his interest in the 
newspaper and embarked in the grocery busi- 
ness. While publishing his paper he had 
wanted to enlist as a soldier in defense of 
the L'nion, but had allowed himself to be dis- 
suaded from taking this step, .\iter he had 
been in the grocery business for two weeks, 
however, he concluded to join the army, ami 
when his friends found that they could no 
longer prevail upon him to remain at home 
they suggested that he secure a commission. 
He took no part in this, but his friends 
labored in his behalf in this direction. Mr. 
Irish organized a company of which he be- 
came captain and which became Company 
K of the Thirteenth New Jersey Volunteers. 
His men had been in line but twice when the 
command was ordered south and Captain 
Irish had hardly become acquainted with his 
soldiers when he was ordered into battle at 
Antietam, on the 17th of September, 1862. 
He was leading his men in making a charge 
in which they had to scale a fence, and was 
several paces ahead of them urging them on 
when a bullet from the enemy jjierced his 
breast, striking his heart, and he was instant- 
ly killed, l^eing the first man in the regiment 
to fall. Heber Wells, who was near him and 
saw him fall, rushed to him, supporting his 
head and asking him if he was badly hurt. 
He replied. "Heber. I am killed." They were 



his last words. The battle raged so that Mr. 
Wells could not care for the body, but gave 
it in charge of three others, who, however, 
\\ ere ordered to other duty and his body lay 
upon the field from eight o'clock in the 
n:orning of ^\'ednesday until the succeeding 
Friday, when it was secured and interred on 
the battle-field. Mr. Weils secured posses- 
sion of his sword, his watch, his diary, and 
some letters from his pockets. Before he had 
left his friends asked him in case of his death 
it his lx)(ly should be brought back and he 
replied that as it would cost from one to two 
hundred dollars and that his family would 
be left with little means, he would prefer to 
be buried on the battle-field and save the ex- 
pense. He also made recjuest of his friends 
who were taking steps to secure money for 
the purpose of an elaborately carved sword, 
that they would wait and see the outcome and 
if he fell, to give the money instead to his 
wife and children, three in number. Al- 
though at first interred on the battle-field his 
remains were afterward takai to Paterson 
and buried in the Baptist cemetery at Sandy 
Hill, while later they were removed to Cedar 
Lawn, on the 25th of November, 1870. Mrs. 
Irish survived her husband only until Febru- 
ary, 1863. The children are all living; 
Frank F. ; Mrs. Gertrude Wright, of Buffalo ; 
and Stelle. named for Captain Irish's first 
employer, Mr. Stelle, of the "Guardian" 
newspaper. The funeral of Captain Irish 
was conducted by the Masonic fraternity, of 
which he was a consistent member, and was 
largely attended, for he had many friends. 

After the mother's death, Lewis Irish, of 
Hackensack, New Jersey, a brother of the 
captain, became the children's guardian and 
gave them a good home, carefully rearing 
them to manhood. Frank F. Irish, of this re- 
\iew. acquired a good common school educa- 



1 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



321 



tion in Hackensack and when about tliirtecn 
years of age lie went to Binglianiton, New 
York, where he continued liis education for 
a time. At about tlie age of fifteen he began 
learning the molder's trade in the foundry 
of that place, and from the start lie svas able 
to eani a dollar per day. When he had com- 
pleted his apprenticeship he worked at his 
trade in different parts of the country for 
twenty-two years, and in 1879 he came to 
Watkins, where he secured a position in the 
foundn.'. In 1888 he sought a home in the 
far west, locating at Whatcom, in the state 
of Washington. There he etigaged in sur- 
veying for the Bellingham Bay & British 
Columbia Railroad for about five years, mak- 
ing his home at Xew Whatcom, which town 
he helped to lay out, witnessing its growth 
from a village of six hundred to thirteen 
thousand inhabitants. In 1894, however, 
Mr. Irish returned to Watkins, where for a 
time he was employed in the loundr}% and 
then in 1898 he opened his present business 
on a small scale, having merely a news room, 
but subseciuently he purchased the Fair, of 
Mr. Davis, and has built up a good trade, 
dealing in crockery, toys, stationery and 
sporting goods. 

On the I2tli of April, 1881, in Watkins, 
was celebrated the marriage of Frank IrisJi 
and Miss Alice I. Sherman, who was born 
near Syracuse, at W'eedsport, New York, a 
daughter of Ora and Charlotte (Russell) 
Sherman, residents of Watkins, in which 
place the daughter was reared and educated. 
Two sons lia\e been born unto them : Charles 
H., whose birth occurred in Seneca Falls, 
.■\pril 18, 1882, and Leonard C, who was 
born in Xew Whatcom, Washington, June 
19. 1892. 

Mr. Irish is a stalwart Republican in pol- 
itics, but has never been an office seeker. So- 



cially he is connected w ith the Improved Or- 
der of Red r^len and the Knights of the Mac- 
cabees, having filled most of the chairs in 
these lodges. He is a gentleman of good 
business ability, sagacity and strong purpose, 
and ill the control of the enterprise of which 
he has now beai the proprietor for several 
years, he is meeting with well merited suc- 
cess. 



CHARLES SHERWOOD FROST. 

In viewing the mass of mankind in the 
various occupations of life, the conclusion is 
forced upon the observer that in the vast ma- 
jority of cases men ha\e sought employment 
not in the line of their peculiar fitness but 
in those fields where caprice or circumstances 
have placed them, thus explaining the reason 
of the failure of ninety-five per cent of those 
who enter professional or commercial circles. 
In a few cases is seems that men with a pecul- 
iar fitness for a certain line have taken it up, 
and marked success has followed. Such is 
the fact in the case of the subject of this 
biography, who is to-day one of the most 
prominent business men of Watkins, con- 
trolling extaisive and important interests. 

Charles Sherwood Frost was born in 
Chemung county, in the town of Catlin, No- 
vcml:)er 3, 1835, and is a son of Thomas Sher- 
wood and Lydia (Cogswell) Frost. The 
family is a very old and prominent one in 
the Empire state and was established in 
.\merica by English ancestors in an early 
epoch of the development of the new world, 
but the early records of the family were lost 
in a fire which destroyed the court house in 
Fairfax, Connecticut, in the seventeenth cen- 
tury. The great-grandfather of our subject, 
Joseph Frost, Jr., in company with his par- 



322 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



ents, came to tlie town of Catharine, Schuy- 
ler county. They cast in tlieir lot with its 
first settlers and secured a tract of land before 
any roads were cut througli this portion of 
the state. They began the work of clearing 
and developing a farm and from that time 
to the present representatixes of the Frost 
family have been proiuinent and active in 
affairs pertaining to the upbuilding and ad- 
vancement of this portion of the state. Jo- 
seph Frost, Sr.. the great-great-grandfather 
of our subject, died in 1810, having attained 
to an advanced age. The great-grandfather, 
Josqih Frost, Jr., was one of the heroes of 
the Revolutionary war who fought for the 
independence of the nation and was after- 
ward pensioned in recognition of his services. 

Jonathan I""rost, the grandfather of our 
subject, died in the town of Catharine in the 
year 1859. Like others of the family as far 
back as the history can be traced, he had de- 
voted his attention to agricultural pursuits. 
Fie married in Connecticut and the wedding 
journey of the young couple was made on 
horsel>ack from that state to the town of 
Catharine in Schuyler county, Xew ^'^rk. 

Thomas Sherwood l-'rost. the father of 
our subject, was a millwright by trade Imt 
turned his attention to general farming. He 
was bom in the town of Catharine, now 
]\Iontour I^'alls, December 26, 1809. The 
farm which he purchased was surveyed by 
Mr. Pompclla, of Owego, in 1817, and was 
a part of the old Watkins and Flint purchase. 
These old farm properties which belonged to 
the ancestors of our subject are still in the 
possession of the family, and the old home- 
stead, which was the property of Thomas 
Slierwood I*"roSt, came into the possession of 
Charles S. Frost of this review in 1879. 
Throughout the greater part of his business 
career the fallu-r carried on agricultural pur- 



suits. He married Lydia Cogswell, who was 
born October 5, 1811, and both attained to 
an advanced age, the father passing away 
July 12, 1885, while the mother's death oc- 
curred on the 28th of December, 1893. 

In the early district schools Charles S. 
Frost of this review acquired his preliminary 
education and later continued his studies in 
the Lima Seminary of Lima, New York. 
When he put aside his text books he turned 
his attention to farming and lumbering, 
which he followed for a short tinie, but not 
long had he been engaged in business on his 
own account when the Civil war broke out 
and with patriotic spirit he responded to the 
government's call for aid, enlisting in Au- 
gust, 1 86 1, as a member of the Forty-eighth 
New York Volunteer Infantry, becoming a 
member of the regimental band. He joined 
the organization at Millport and was mus- 
tered in at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. After 
serving for thirteen months he was then jion- 
orably discharged at F'ort ]''ulaski, Georgia, 
and was there mustered out. 

Mr. Frost returned home and was en- 
gaged in the marble business in Millport, New 
York, from February, 1863, until the follow- 
ing fall, although in April of that year he 
took up his residence in Wat!:ins. where he 
has now lived for almost forty years. Here 
he continued in the marble business, to which 
he has since given his attention, although he 
has not confined his energies entirely to this 
line. He is a man of marked resources and 
business ability and his efforts have been 
potent factors in the successful control of 
other concerns. He erected the building for 
the Schuyler Agricultural works in 1873. 
He is now connected with the machine foun- 
dry and milling business with which two of 
his sons, John E. and Charles H.. are also 
associated, the former being a partner in the 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



323. 



mill and the latter in the machine works, 
fdundry and marble shop. These have be- 
come leading industrial concerns of Schuyler 
county and are paying investments. Mr. 
I'rost is also the proprietor of the (ilen Park 
Hotel, a large and roomy structure contain- 
ing two hundred and fifty rooms, of which 
one hundred and fourteen are sleeping apart- 
ments. This is one of the finest hotels in this 
section of the state antl is a credit alike to 
its owners and to the locality in which it is 
situated. 

On the 3d of September, 1863, Mr. Frost 
was married to Miss Teressa Frost, a daugh- 
ter of George and Catherine L. (Sherman) 
Frost. Her father was born in 181 1 near 
Reynoldsville, in what was then Seneca coun- 
ty, New York. In 1824 his parents settled 
at Beaver Dams, in what was then Tioga 
county, where they resided until called to 
their final rest. George Frost was a black- 
smith by trade and in the year 1861 moved 
to Watkins, where he became connected with 
mercantile interests as a dealer in hardware 
and lumber. For a long period he was thus 
actively associated with business affairs in 
Schuyler county. He died July 9, 1899, and 
his wife passed away August 14, 1891. Unto 
our subject and his wife have been born six 
children: George \V., who died at the age 
of thirty-eight years, had married Minnie 
I'Viist and had four children, Helen, Louise, 
Alice and George ; John E. married Cora B. 
Smith ; Willis L. married Eva Sisson and has 
one child, Teressa; Charles H. wedded Elena 
Holmes and has a son, Clarence; P'rank mar- 
ried May Catlin and has a daughter, Emily 
May ; and Glenn H. wedded Mary E. Robin- 
son. 

In politics Mr. Frost has been an earnest 
Republican since casting his first presidential 
vote for John C. Fremont in 1856. He has 



served as supervisor in the town of Dix for 
several terms and held other minor offices, 
and is now the president of the board of trade 
of Watkins. To him there has come the at- 
tainment of a distinguished position in con- 
nection w ith the grait material industries of 
the count)', and his efforts have been so well 
directed along plainly defined lines that he 
seems to have realized at any one point of 
progress the full measure of his possibilities 
for accomplishment at that point. A man of 
distinct and forceful individuality, of broad 
mentality and most mature judgment, he has 
left and is leaving his impress upon the in- 
dustrial world. For years he has been an 
important factor in the development of the 
natural resources of the state, in the upbuild- 
ing of and in the promotion of the enterprises 
which add not alone to his individual pros- 
perity, but also advance the general welfare 
and prosperity of the city in which he makes 
his home. 



RICHARD MALONEY. 

.Among the residents that Ireland has 
furnished to Schuyler county and who have 
become important factors in its business life 
is Richaril Maloney, who was Ijorn t>n the 
JCmerald isle, in the year 1825. He acquired 
his education in his nati\e country and there 
entered upon bis business career, but he real- 
ized that advancement was slow in his native 
land and resolved to come to America to en- 
joy its greater opportunities. Accordingly 
he crossed the Atlantic in 1850, first locating 
in Watkins, where he followed farming and 
general jobbing. There he remained until 
1892, when he removed to Odessa, purchas- 
ing a farm of seventy-five acres four miles 
from liunlett. Here he carried on general 



324 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



farming until the time of his death, which 
occurred July 6, 1900. Mr. Malone\- was 
always energetic, progressive and industrious 
and his efforts were attended with creditable 
success. 

In i860 Mr. Maloney w-as united in mar- 
riage to Bridget Hickey, who was born in 
County Cork, Ireland, and came to this coun- 
try in 1842, living in Watkins until her mar- 
riage. Their children are: Ella; John; 
James, who passed away; Thomas; \\'illiani, 
who is also deceased; and William, who is 
still with his mother. Of this family, Ella is 
the wife of Thomas Clark, who died in Wat- 
kins, where she made her home. John mar- 
ried Marie Dugeon, and lives in Corning. 
Thomas was united in marriage to Minnie 
Chapman and they make their home in Odes- 
sa. Their children are Floyd and Daniel. 
The latter is foreman of the Lehigh \'alley 
Railroad at this place and has been in the 
employ of the company for nine years. W^ill- 
iam is also in the employ of the same road. 

Mr. Maloney left to his family an un- 
tarnished name. His upright life and sterl- 
ing qualities of manhood had endeared him 
to many friends who also deeply regretted 
his loss. In his nature and manner he was 
always genial, generous and courteous and 
he e\er favored any cause for the general 
welfare of his community. 



JAMES D. PALMER. 

Prominent among the leading agricultur- 
ists and horticulturists of Schuyler county is 
James D. Palmer, a very enterprising and 
successful business man whose fine farm and 
valuable orchards are the visible evidences of 
his life of industry and earnest toil guided by 



sound judgment. He has now passed the 
Psalmist's span of three score years and 
ten, having reached the seventy-fourth 
milestone on life's journey. His birth oc- 
curred in the town of Ohio, Herkimer 
county. New York, on the 12th of October, 
1827. He acquired his education in the com- 
mon schools which he left at the age of nine- 
teen in order to become a factor in the busi- 
ness world. He began learning the car- 
penter's trade, which he followed for some 
time in Elmira and Horseheads, New York. 
He possesses much natural ability as a me- 
clianic and draughtsman. 

On the 1st of October, 1853, Mr. Palmer 
vras united in marriage to Miss Marilla 
Baker, a daughter of Harmon and Ilulda 
(Goodsell) Baker, who removed from the 
state of Vermont to New York, settling in 
the town of Hornby, Steuben county. In 
1853 her father went to California, where he 
has since made his home. The marriage of 
Mr. and Mrs. Palmer has been blessed with 
three children: Arthur O., who wedded 
Grace Edgecomb, by whom he has two chil- 
dren; Edward C, who married Harriet 
Smith, has four children and is a resi- 
dent of Williston, North Dakota, where he is 
prominently known as a government engi- 
neer and as a representative of his district in 
tl;e general assembly of that state; and Lena 
]., who is now deceased. 

Coming to Schuyler county in early life 
James Palmer has here advanced to a very* 
prominent and gratifying position. He is a 
representative of the leading business inter- 
ests of the county — farming and fruit grow- 
ir.g. By capable management, industry and 
economy he has been enabled to make large 
purchases of land and is to-day the owner 
oi a good farm, comprising eighty-eight 
acres, l^pon this he has mnde excellent im- 



1 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



325 



provenieiits in keeping willi a model farm of 
tlie twentieth century. He has erected a 
good residence, substantial barns and out- 
buildings, and has planted twenty-one hun- 
dred fruit trees, including pciches, pears, 
apples and plums. There is also a consider- 
able quantity of small fruit upon the place 
and his opinions concerning horticulture in 
any department are regarded as authority. 
His fields of grain, too, are highly cultivatetl 
and yield to him good crops. Everything 
about his place is attractive, presenting a 
pleasing feature in the landscape. Through 
his efforts his farm has become very valu- 
able as well as productive and the owner well 
merits the excellent success which has 
crowned his well directed efiforts. He is a 
man of genuine worth, honesty and reliabil- 
ity, his word being as good as any bond ever 
solemnized by signature or seal. He has 
been called upon to settle up several es- 
tates, having recently assisted in the settle- 
ment of one estate of seventeen thousand 
dollars, in which every cent was accounted 
for. He has erected many of the buildings 
ia his section of the countiy, which to-day 
stand as monuments to his handiwork. 

In politics Mr. Palmer was formerly a 
Democrat and cast his first presidential vote 
for Martin Van P>uren in 1848, but he now 
supports the Prohibition party. At one time 
he was a member of the Grange and Good 
Templars society in his community, but since 
the discontinuance of those lodges he stands 
alone as a representative of the organiza- 
tions. He represented the Grange in the state 
organization and was elected the first presi- 
dent of the Farmers' Alliance, which office he 
filled for two years. Religiously he is 
an earnest and faithful member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was 
a trustee at one time. 



P. B. SULLU'AX. 

P. B. Sullivan, a dealer in coal and wood 
in W'atkins, was born in the town of Read- 
ing, Schuyler county, Xew York, January 
11, 1862, and is a son of Owen and Mary 
(Conley) Sullivan, both of whom were na- 
tives of County Cork, Ireland, where they 
were reared and married. In their early 
married life they determined to seek a home 
in the new world, and, crossing the .\tlantic 
to the United States, they lived for a time in 
Yates county. New York, coming thence to 
Schuyler county. The mother died in Wat- 
kins in 1880 and was buried in the Catholic 
cemetei")'. The father, however, is now liv- 
ing in Utica with his children. Of his ten 
ciiildren, eight still survive. These are : Mag- 
gie, the wife of Thomas Fletcher, who is a 
molder and is serving as sujjervisor of the city 
of Utica; Mary, the wife of Edward Gray- 
stone, a barber; Hannah, the wife of Charles 
Folk, who is foreman for Armour in Rome, 
New York; Daniel J., a Rochester phar- 
macist who is now conducting a drug store 
in Utica ; and Kittie and Jennie, who are with 
their father. 

For a time the family resided at Coal 
Point, where P. B. Sullivan spent his boy- 
hood days and acquired his education in the 
public schools, and at the age of thirteen he 
began working at ten dollars per munth and 
was afterward employed in the handling of 
coal at Coal Point, being thus engaged until 
he was thirty years of age, during which time 
he won advancement from the position of 
the boy who carried the water until he be- 
came foreman and later agent, acting in the 
Inst named capacity for about five years. 

On the 1 8th of April, 1892, Mr. Sullivan 
was united in marriage to Miss Hannah Kel- 
ley, who was born, reared and educated in 



320 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Watkins, a daughter of John and Bridget 
(O'Day) Kelley. They now have three 
children, John K., M. Grace and Florence 
Monica. They liave a pleasant home in 
Watkins and Mr. Sullivan provides for his 
family by engaging in the coal trade in which 
he embarked in 1894, since which time he 
has secured a large and growing patronage 
which brings to him a good profit. He ships 
coal by lake and canal, handling three thou- 
sand tons at Coal Point for one company 
alone. His business has now reached profit- 
able proportions and Mr. Sullivan is num- 
bered among the successful men of his com- 
munity. He cast his first presidential vote 
for Grover Cleveland and is a Democrat but 
has never been an aspirant for office. At the 
age of thirteen he was confirmed in tlie 
Roman Catholic church by Bishop Ryan, of 
Buffalo. His life has been one of continuous 
activity, in which has been accorded due 
recognition of labor, and to-day he is num- 
bered among the substantial citizens of his 
native countv. 



CAPTAIN HIRAM L. COUCH. 

Hiram L. Couch, a son of Eli and Har- 
riet (St. John) Couch, was born October 
10, 1823, in the town of Catharine, then Ti- 
oga, and later Chemung, but now Schuyler 
county, and is therefore one of the oldest 
native sons residing here, his life span hav- 
ing covered almost eighty years. His fa- 
ther, Eli Couch, came to the Empire state 
from Reading, Connecticut. He wedded 
Harriet St. John, of Silver Mine, Fairfield 
county, Connecticut, and on removing to 
New York they took up their abode in 
Hopewell, near Canandaigua, Ontario 
county. They became the parents of four 



children, of whom the subject of this re- 
view is the eldest. Samuel P. is a farmer 
residing in Montour Falls. Mary E. is the 
wife of Giles Piatt, also living in Montour 
Falls, and their children are four in num- 
ber; Harriet C, deceased wife of Edwin 
T. Tracy, of Montour Falls; Martha A. and 
Ella E., yet with their parents; and Her- 
man L., who married Emma Zimmerman, 
by whom he had one child, Ethel M., now 
deceased. Eleanor E., the youngest mem- 
ber of the Couch family, is also deceased. 
The parents of our subject have long since 
passed away. 

The early schools which had been estab- 
lished in Scliuyler county afforded to Hi- 
ram L. Couch his educational privileges and 
after he put aside his text books he learned 
the molder's trade and mastered all of the 
dift'erent kinds of work executed in a foun- 
dry. He became quite expert in that line of 
industrial activity and for twenty-one years 
followed the business, commanding excel- 
lent wages by reason of his efficiency and his 
reliability. At the end of that time he 
joined the army. Hardly had the smoke 
from Fort Sumter's guns cleared away 
whai he offered his services to the govern- 
ment, for he had watched with interest the 
progress of events in the south and resolved 
that if an attempt at secession was made he 
would strike a blow in defense of the Union. 
Accordingly, on the 21st of April, 1861, he 
enlisted and on the 14th of May following 
he was mustered into the United States ser- 
vice as a first lieutenant of Company K, 
Third New York Infantry, of which com- 
pany General Mulford was then captain. 
He first went to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, 
and afterward was transferred with his 
regiment to Fort McHenry in Baltimore. 
Later he was ordered to Suft'olk, Virginia, 




CAPT. H. L. COUCH 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



3=9 



and from tlial point went to l'"ortress .Mon- 
roe. At the time wlien Lee made liis ad- 
vance on Ciettysl)urg Mr. Coucli was or- 
dered with his regiment to tiie north to aid 
ill cliecking- the advance ot the Confederate 
commander, and after tiie hatlle he was 
again sent with his rcj^imen.t. Colonel E. G. 
Floyd commanding, to Norfolk, Virginia, 
and from tiicre to Charleston. South Caro- 
lina. Sul)sequently tiiey landed on h'olly 
Inland. At that place he was promoted to the 
rank of captain and placed in command of the 
hattery at Pawnee Landing, I'olly Island, 
South Carolina. With his regiment he had 
control of two batteries situated .-ihout 
twenty rods apart. On the 19th of .\pril, 
1S64, Captain Couch went from Folly Isl- 
and to Hilton Head and subscr|uently to 
Fortress Monroe. They were sent from 
there up the York river to West Point. \'ir- 
ginia. Subsequently they proceeded up the 
James river to Bermuda Hundred and ;if- 
terward to Petersburg, tearing up a part of 
the Petersburg & Richmond Railroad at 
tliat place, where he remained with his com- 
mand for about a week and in the charge 
which w'as made alwut sundown on Satur- 
day evening, he was wounded. .\ shell 
crashed into a pine tree and a piece of it cut 
his left hand. Ilowever, he had his wound 
bound up and was again ready for duty 
after a few hours' rest. On the following 
Monday morning, on the 16th of .May. the 
enemy broke through the lines and started 
on a run. The Third Xew York, com- 
manded by Colonel E. (]. I''loyd, was or- 
dered to hold them bnck. They had only 
one hnndred and ninety-six muskets left 
with which to make the charge but they suc- 
ceeded in the attemjit. dri\ing the Confed- 
erates back and taking some of them prison- 
ers. Their colonel, E. G. Floyd, was 

19 



wounded, and other officers were also dis- 
abled. ^ In that engagement Captain Couch 
was shot through the arm by an explosive 
bullet, w hich so shattered the arm that it U.id 
U) be amputated and he lay in the hospital 
for seven months. He was then carried to 
Point Lookout Hospital and as soon as he 
could he moved he -was transferred t<j 
C"hesapeake llosjjtial in Hampton Roads.. 
1 le was then granted a furlough of twenty 
days with the privilege of returning home, 
but while making his way up Chesapeiike 
I'.ay he caught a severe cold which confined 
him tr) the house throughout the following 
winter. When his lirst furlough had ex- 
pired the time was extended twenty days 
and when that had expired his jihysician 
made out an affidavit that he was unable for 
duty or for the trip south, .ind would not be 
ready before six moiitlis had passed. ( )n 
receiving this report the secretary of war 
wrote him a discharge because of his disa- 
bility. Captain Couch had won pioniotiijn 
liirough meritorious coiidr.ct, and to his 
country he rendered valuable aid. Like 
others of the boys in blue he 'deserves to be 
numberetl among those to whom the coun- 
try owes a debt of gratitude w hich can never 
l)e repaid, but the memory of the brave 
soldier boys will e\er be \enerated and the 
story of their deeds will be read with in- 
terest as long as history endures. 

Captain Couch has always been a stanch 
snjiporter of the Republican party which 
stood I'or the jireservation of the L'nion 
during the dark hours of the Civil war. The 
sliuly of the issues and questions of the day 
has never cau.sed him to wish to sever his 
allegiance to the organization and he is one 
of its most loyal adherents in Schuvler 
county. The Captain is a iiroininent meni-< 
her of Montour Post, Xo. 22, C. A. R.. in 



330 



THE IJIUGRAPHICAL RECORD 



wliich he lias tilled all the offices, including 
that of commander, and since 1847 he has 
been a member of Havana Lodge, Xo. 56, 
I O. O. ¥., becoming one of the charter 
members of that organization and serving 
as its secretary for twenty-five years. lie is 
also a member of Thayandanegca hjicanip- 
ment and belongs to the grand lodge and 
state encan-.pment. Besides these orders he 
is connected with the Rebecca Lodge, L O. 
O. F., and is an active worker in that so- 
ciety. In his church relations he is a Pres- 
byterian and is deeply interested in every- 
thing pertaining to the general good. He is 
now practically living a retired life and re- 
ceives the esteem and respect which shoukl 
be accorded to one who has adxanced far 
upon life's journey, his course e\cr marked 
bv honestv and fidclitv to dulv. 



WILIJAM S. W.M'CIT. 

W illiani S. W'augh is the ow ner of a well 
equipped and profitable drug store in Wat- 
kins and is also agent for the Lehigh X'allc)- 
Railroad Comjjany and for tlie United States 
Express Company at this place. Mr. W'augh 
^vas l)orn in the town of Orange, Schuyler 
county. July 28, 1S63, and is a son of James 
and Jane (Stewart) W'augh. His parents 
were natives of Ireland, and when aljout ten 
years of age the father of our subject left 
the Emerald isle and with his parents crossed 
the Atlantic to the new world, the family 
being established in the town of Orange, 
w here rei)resentatives of the name have since 
h\ed. The mother of our subject was about 
si.xteen years of age when she came tn the 
I'nited States and soon afterward she gave 
her hand in marriage to James Waugh. 



Throughout his business career the father of 
our subject has been identified with farming 
interests and is now a well known agricul- 
turist of Schuyler county. 

In the public schools of his native town 
William S. Waugh began his education and 
later entered the Dunilee Preparatory School, 
in which he was graduated with the class of 
June, 1886. He afterward engaged in teach- 
ing for three years in Schuyler county and 
then took up the study of pharmacy in the 
Thompson drug store of Watkins. He also 
occupied a clerical position in a ilrug store on 
I'ourth avaiue in New York city, and in Feb- 
ruary, i8y2, he passed the re(|uircd examina- 
tion before the state board of pharmacy. 
Previous to this time Mr. W'augh had pur- 
chased the drug stock and I'l.xtures of George 
H. Jackson, a drug store haxing been con- 
ducted at this place for a half century. When 
he had passed his examination he embarked 
in I)usiness here and is now regarded as one 
of the leading merchants of Watkins. He 
carries a large and complete line oi drugs, 
exercises great care in compounding prescrip- 
tions, and by re^ison of his comprehensive 
knowledge of drugs and their medicinal uses, 
he is well ecpiijjped for his chosen pursuit. 
liis Inisiness has steadily increased since he 
took up his abode here and his patronage is 
now a profitable one. In addition to the con- 
duct of his store he is also capably serving 
as agent lor the Lehigh \'alley Railroail 
Company and for the United States Express 
Com])any. 

On the 28th of December. i8y8, Mr, 
Waugh was married to Miss Clara Stone, a 
daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (Blaine) 
Si one. They now have an interesting little 
sen. Charles Stewart, born Noveiubcr 28, 
1901. Mr. Waugh is a member of Jefiferson 
Lodge, Xo. ^22. V. Sc .\. M. .and also 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



33« 



long>- 1(1 t.aiia(la,s;iiL;;i l.udgc, Xo. 201. 
1 O. O. F., of Watkins and to other 
fraternal organizations. lie has passed 
through all the chairs of ihe Odd I'ellows 
society in its local hranch and has repre- 
sented his home lodge in the grand lodge of 
1898 and 1899. His political support is 
given to the Democracy, and he is a member 
of the Presbyterian chtirch. Starting out on 
his business career in early life, he found the 
opportunities he sought — which, by the way, 
are always open to the ambitious, energetic 
man — and making the l)est of these he has 
steadily worked his way upward. He pos- 
sesses the resolution, perseverance and relia- 
bility so characteristic of liis Irish ancestry, 
and his name is now numbered among the 
I)cst citizens of Watkins and of Schuyler 
countv. 



PERRY DIBBLE. 



Perry Dibl)lc, who is a representative 
of agricultural interests in Montour town- 
ship, was born in the town of Montour 
I'"alls, on the oth of March, 1851. and is a 
son of S. W. and Hannah (Owens) Dibble. 
His father is a native of Pennsylvania, born 
on the 1st of July, 1802, in the town of 
.Athens, near Tioga Point, and when (juite 
young he came to ]\b)ntour township, 
Schuyler county, Xew York, an<l Iilmc soon 
afterward ])urchased a farm, devoting his 
energies to agricultural pursuits. He be- 
came recognized as one of the practicd, en- 
terprising and successful farmers of his lo- 
cality. He married Hannah Owens and they 
became the parents of four children : 1 lelen. 
John,. Perry and Schuyler, all of whom 
are Hving in Montour township. 

Upon the home farm Perry Dilililc. of 



this rexicw , .^jicnt the days of his child- 
hood and youth, wt)rking in the fields and 
meailows ihrous.;h the months of summer, 
while in the winter he pursued his education 
in the public schools, gaining a fair knowl- 
edge of the branches of English learning, 
which tit one for life's practical duties. At 
tiie age of eighteen years he left school and 
later began farming for himself, which he 
followed for eight years. On the expiration 
of that period he Ijegan dealing in licpior, 
I ( inducting a retail store. He conducted 
this business for six years and then resumed 
the work of the farm, carrying on carpenter- 
ing also in connection with his agricultural 
jiursuits. His life has been one of activity, 
his industry brin.ging to him the success 
which has crowned his lalxirs. llis home is 
ni Montoiu" township, where he has lived all 
his life. He has also been associated with 
])iiil(Hng interests, evidence of his handi- 
wurk being seen in a numl)cr of structures in 
this locality. 

Mr. Dibble keeps well informed on the 
political issues and (jnestions of the day antl 
is thus ciKiMed to support his position by in- 
telligent argument. He votes with the Dcm- 
ocracw belie\ing hrmly in its principles, but 
has never been a politician in the sense of 
office seeking, lie belongs to ilie Methodist 

church. 

» » » 

GIDEOX C. hXlKDIlAM. M. D. 

Succe:?sfully engaged in the ])ractice of 
medicine and su.rgery in W'.itkins. Dr. Ciiil- 
eon Carl h^ordham is also known because of 
his social |)roniinence and personal worth. 
! le was horn in tlie town of Hector, .\pril 
!<;. 1863. His father. John Inirdham. was 
a n;itive of l-jigland, ;unl in the year 1848 



332 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



ieft that country and crossed tlie broad At- 
lantic to America, settling in Schuyler 
county. He wedded Catherine Monroe and 
was engaged in business as a gardener and 
fruit grower, thus providing for tlie wants 
of his family. 

The Doctor attended the public schools 
of Dundee, New York, and the Dundee Pre- 
paratory School, being graduated in the lat- 
ter with the class of 1886. In the meantime, 
however, in the year 1881, he had begun the 
study of medicine under the ilirection and 
in the office of Dr. Ilawley. with whom he 
remained for three years. He then entered 
the University of Vermont, pursuing a three 
years' course, after which he was graduated 
in July, 1891. In order to further perfect 
himself in his chosen calling, he next spent 
twenty months in practice in the Hoston City 
Hosjiital, after which he began the private 
practice of his profession in Yates county. 
New 'S'ork. establishing his office at Rock 
Stream. There he continued for eighteen 
months and on the expiration of that perioil 
he came to VVatkins, where he has since 
li\ed. He is a member of the Yates County 
Medical Snciely, and is a physician of broad 
reading and comprehensive knowledge, 
whose efficiency is cuntinuallx- ]iriinii>te.l by 
his study and research. Anything that tends 
to bring to man the key to that mystery 
which we call life is of interest to Dr. ImihI- 
liam, and be is regarded as a man <il iMdail 
learning in his profession, and one whose 
skill makes him well worthy of the public 
patronage. 

The Doctor is a Presbyterian in religious 
faith and politically be is a Democrat, lie 
belongs to tanadasaga Lodge. \o. n/), 1. 
O. O. I'., to the Knights of .Mice d)ees. ;m<l 
to tlie Modern Woodmen of .\mcrica. I'or 
the last two named he is medicil examiner, 



and he served as jjcnsion examiner under 
President Cleveland at Penn Yan, acting as 
secretary oi the board. On the i8th of Oc- 
tober, 1894, the Doctor wedded Miss Ade- 
line Roberts, a daughter of (ieorge and Har- 
riet (Cook) Roberts. They have a wide 
accjuaintance in W'atkins and throughout the 
surrounding district, and occupy an en\iable 
position in social circles where true worth 
and intelligence are received as passports 
into goofl society. Their own htime is cele- 
brated for its gracious hospitality and both 
tlie Doctor and his wife ha\e many warm 
friends? 



JOHN HANDRAHAN. 

Ireland has furnished to .\merica many 
residents who have become well known fact- 
ors in business life. They are energetic, 
hardworking people and constitute a valu- 
able class in American citizenship. Mr. 
11 andrahan, who is successfully following 
farming, owning a good and i^roductive tract 
of land near Montour I'alls, in Schuyler 
county. New York, is a native of the Emer- 
ald isle, his birth having occurred in county 
Cork in the year 1830. His parents, Cor- 
nelius and Maggie (Sullivan) Handrahan. 
were also natives of Ireland and spent their 
entire lives there. 

I'rior to coming to the new world, John 
Handrahan worked for six months in a roll- 
ing mill at Newport, \\'ales, but as bis wages 
were only twelve cents jier day he decided to 
tr} bis fortune in America, and accordingly, 
ii. 184C), at the age of sixteen years, he crossed 
the .\tlantic. In this country be has been 
varionsK- eniploxed and in this way has 
karned many useful things, so that to-day he 
has a practical k-nowlcdge of nearly .all kinds 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



333 



ot labor. For nine nu)ntlis he engaged in 
firing on a steamboat running out of Pbila- 
tlcipbia. and for liis services received nine 
sliillings per day. wliicii was always paid in 
pciniies. He lias wtirked at nigbt and on 
Sundays, besides putting in his regidar time 
during the week, and lias alway.- faithfully 
performed any duty de\(>lving- upon him. 

Soon after his arrival in America .Mr. 
Handrahan accepted a position on the Erie 
Railroad, working at grading in Delaware 
county, New York, for two months, and then 
accompanied his brother to Millers Corners, 
where he remained two years, during which 
time he was engaged in grading and laxing 
track and in the general cnersight of a gang 
of workmen. When he left that place he en- 
tered the employ of the Pennsyhania Rail- 
road Company at Havana, now .Montmu- 
Falls. Here he acted as general overseer of 
men for five yeirs and on the expiration of 
that period he accepted a position on a wood 
machine for the same company, sawing wood 
for the railroad engines. At that time wood 
was used entirely for fuel on the railroads 
and had to Ije sawed in lengths ready for the 
engines. His next position was with the 
Erie Railroad Company, with which he re- 
mained for nine years, walking and inspect- 
ing the tracks. At the end of that time the 
road changed hands, becoming a part of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad system, and its em- 
ployes remained with the new company, with 
which Mr. Handrahan was connected for 
seven years. He then lost his position 
tlirough the neglect of a flagman. During 
this time, however, he had been economical 
and industrious and his savings enabled him 
to purchase a good farm. Since 1882 he has 
carried on agricidlural pursuits and is now 
the owner of a large and ^ ahiahlc tract of 
Ir.nd which is under a hi<di state i>f cultiva- 



tion, everything about the place being neat 
and thrifty in appearance. 

Mr. Handrahan was united in marriage 
to Miss Catherine O'Hare, a most estimable 
lady of sterling worth. They have six chil- 
dren : Patrick, who is employed as an engi- 
neer on the Black Diamond of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad; John, deceased; Maggie; 
Catherine; 'Henry, who is a conductor on the 
F.imira & Watkins trolley line and makes his 
home with his father ; and Marion, who has 
passed away. 

Mr. Handrahan is entirely a self-made 
man. He was in limited circumstances on 
his arrival in .America but he has worked 
hard and continuously and his labors have 
brought to him a very comfortable com- 
petence. He certainly deserves great credit 
for what he has accomplished and merits the 
high regard in which he is universally held. 
He has lived peaceably with all men, having 
never had a law-suit, and he is noted for his 
honesty, his word being considered as good 
as his bond. .Although past the Psalmist's 
span of three score years and ten. he has 
never Ijeen ill in his life, and is still hale and 

hearty. 

« « » 

PROFESSOR LEWIS 11. P.K.XDLEY. 

Professor Lewis Har\ey Bradley has a 
wide acquaintance in Schuyler county and 
throughout this portion of Xew York, while 
his skill as an o])tician has won him an en- 
\ iable reputation. He makes his home in 
Watkins, but travels quite extensively in the 
interest of his business. His birth occurred 
in the town of Enfield. Tompkins county, 
March r, 1845, his parents being Edwin and 
Julia .\. (Shelton) Bra.lley. The Bradley 
familv is of Irish lineage and in the earlv 



334 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



days of American liistory was estalilishecl in 
New Bedlord, Connecticut. Tlie paternal 
grandfatlier of our sul)ject was Searles 
Bradley. Tlie father. F,<lwin IJradley, after 
arriving- at years of maturity, was married 
to Julia A. Shelton. a descendant of an old 
English family that was established in 
America about 1690 by Daniel Shelton. 
She was a ilaughter of Ix'mucl Shelton. who 
came to this state from Connecticut in 1S06. 
and located in what is now the town ,if L'alh- 
aiinc. Schuyler county, when this section 
was a vast wilderness. Here he spent his 
remaining days, aiding in the work of devel- 
opment and imin'oNcincnt, and at his death 
left eleven children to carry on the work. 
All of these reached an advanced age, ten of 
the number having passed the Psalmist's 
span of three sc(jre years and ten w hen c died 
to their linal rest. For many years they lived 
on adjoining farms, and four continued to 
live near the old homestead throughout life. 
With the exception of one, all died in Sclniy- 
ler county. Representatives of the tliird 
generation are now living on the original 
tract owned ])\' I.emuel Shelton. TJiis fam- 
ily lias been noted for their strict adherence 
to temperance principles, and for their ex- 
emplary lives. They are all strong Ejiisco- 
palians, devoted to the faith of their fathers. 
The Episcopal church in Catharine, erected 
by Lemuel Shelton, his sons and others, is 
still standing and it is said its doors have 
never been o])ened for service when some one 
of (he name of Shelton was not i)resent. The 
Shelton family history is traced back to the 
Anglo-Saxons, and tiie lirst ui)on record is 
Joliu l)e Shelton. The date of his death, 
however, is not known. He left the manor 
of Stratbrnok to the jirior of Butte and 
John, his son, conlirmed the disposition of 
the |)roperty. Jn IJ15 Xicholas ')c Shelton 



had purchased an estate in W'ybred and was 
there one of the rebelling barons against 
King John. Sir Ralph De Shelton was 
knighted at the battle of Cressy. in 1346. 
He married Joan, a daughter of John De 
Plais, and died in 1373. being buried in the 
cliancel of St. Mary's church at Shelton, 
under a monument bearing his efitigy in com- 
jilete armor. In 1504 Sir John Shelton, 
.Knight of r.atl). was high sheritif of Nor- 
folk and Suffolk, lingland. His son. Sir 
John Shehon, filled the same office, which 
was also held in 1570 by Ralph Shelton. The 
estates continued in the faiuily until i(>f.)4, 
and included Shelton Hall. ;i noble mansion, 
which has now long been in ruins. Daniel 
.Shelton. the founder of the Xew England 
family, was born at Deptford, Yorkshire, 
luiglan<l. and with his biothcr. Richard, 
came to America |)rior to ifxp. He settled 
in Stratford, tonneclicul. and Richard 
locate<l in \'irginia. Daniel Shelton is men- 
tioned in tiie Stratford recorils as a merchant 
in 1687. and on his tombstone he is styled 
lieutenant. InU in which country he served 
is not known as there are no records of his 
military service in .\meric:i. He settled 
in that part of Stratford called Long Hill, 
and owned a tract of land there aboiu two 
miles square, on which three of his sons 
settled. He also owned land in Stratford, 
Stamfcjrd, Farmington, Oxford, Woodbury, 
Corning, Rijiton and Derby. On the 4th of 
Ajiril. ]()<)J. he marrieil b'lizabeth Welles, 
a daughter of Hon. Sanuiel Welles and after 
her death wedded riliz.ilieth Hollisier. Sam- 
uel Welles was a son of Thomas Welles, one 
ot the first settlers of Hartford and one of the 
early governors of Connecticut. Elizabeth 
liollister was a daughter of John llollislcr, 
Jr.. of Wetherstield. and Joanna, his wife. 
w;is a il.'uii'hter of Hon. Richard i "reat. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



335 



Professor Rradley, of tliis rc\ iew, on tlie 
maternal line is a direct descendant of tliis 
prominent and influential family. He at- 
tended the pnhlic schools of Tompkins 
c<.)unty. New ^'ork, until he was nine years 
of age, when his parents removed to Schuy- 
ler county, settling in the town of Montour, 
where he contiiuied his education in the dis- 
trict schools. Suljse(|ueiUly he attended tJic 
hi^h sch(iol in Haxana. also W'atkins Acad- 
emy, tlien learned the trade of ;i cari)cntcr 
and joiner, which he followed for seven 
}ears, and then he devoted a similar ])eriod 
to acting as a salesman, selling fruit and 
ornamental trees. I-"or seven years he was 
engaged in the marlilc husiness as a solicitor 
and collector, and then, on account of fail- 
ing health, he had to ;il):nidon that husinos 
and rested fnnu lahor for a time. Later he 
spent two years in the eiuploy of the Pure 
(^ioM Manufacturing Company, selling 
spices, teas and coffees for a time, lie then 
li\ed retired on accoimt of his health, after 
which he turned his attention to the optical 
business, of which he has now been a repre- 
sentative for nineteen venrs. lie has trav- 
eled most of the time, biU is ahvavs found at 
his ottice in W'atkins on Sunday and Mon- 
day. He has built uj) a large trade here and 
in adjoining counties and is a \cry ]>roricicnt 
representative of the business, lie under- 
stands thoroughly the great mechanical 
principles which underlie the profession ,ind 
his efficiency enables him to give entire sat- 
isfaction to those who engage his services. 

Professor I5radlcy is a member of 
Havana Lodge, Xo. 56, I. O. O. F. ?lis re- 
ligious faith is that of the Episcojjal churcli, 
of which he has long been a devoted and ac- 
tive member. I'or twenty years he has 
served as a l;iv reader in the clnu'ch. still rc- 
taitu'ng that position, and is also vestryman. 



He served as superiiuendent of the Sunday 
school for twenty years, in his political 
views he is a Republican, but the honors and 
emohunents of office have had no attraction 
for him as he has jireferred to devote his at- 
tention to his ijrofessional duties. He is a 
man of strong force of character, marked 
individuality and upright ])rinciples, and 
wherever he goes he conunands the confi- 
dence, respect and friendship of those with 
whom he is brought in contact. 

On the .nst of June. 1S79, Professor 
I'.radley was united in luarriage to .\nna A. 
Smith, a daughter of Dr. 1 larvey and Hulda 
Ann ((ioodsell) Smith, residents of Schuy- 
ler coiuit}'. Mrs. P)ra<lley was born in the 
town of Di.x, .\pril if), 1S33. and by her 
marriage has beconie the mother ot four 
children: Mary Iklle, born .\pril 5. 1SS2; 
Harvey Edwin, born December 15. 1S83; 
Ella I'nmces, born July 3, 1S86; and Arthur 
La Cnuid. born Xprd -'5, 1S89. 

It will be interesting in this connection 
to note something of the family history of 
]\lrs. Ijradley, who comes of good old Revo- 
lutionary stock. Her grandmother. .Mrs. 
Anna (Ioodsell Smith, celebrated her one 
hundredth birthday at the residence of her 
son, ,it Tainted Post, Xew York, March 15, 
iS()4. She was a daughter of Captain Sher- 
man I'.itterson, who served in the Conti- 
nental army under (jeneral Swift, enlisting 
from Connecticut and ])articipating in the 
storming of Quebec. He was near deneral 
Montgomery when that gallant commander 
lell in that desperate assault. Mrs. .\nna 
Smith was born :a Saratoga, Xew \'ork, in 
(he house that was occupied by General Bur- 
goyne as bis head(|uarters during the Sara- 
toga camiiaign. When sixteen years of ag^ 
she bccanx' the wife of Isaac Goodsell, and 
iravelin"- westward thr. mgh the almost 



336 



THE BIOGBIAPHICAL RECORD 



trackless forests tlie bride ami groom settled 
upon a farm in Ilornljy, Steuben county, 
New York. There tliey lived and labored 
to.mether for over tliirty years, rearing their 
children in peace and happiness. The father 
died, however, in 1841. Si.x years later .Mrs. 
Goodsell became the wife of Elder David 
Smith, of Bath, New York, where she re- 
sided until his death, when she returned to 
Painted Post, living most of the time with 
her son, Isaac, until her demise. When she 
attended school she did not have to bother 
her brains with names and dates that now 
consiitulL- tlie history of the L'nitcd States, 
but that wliicli we stri\e to learn was to her 
a matter of memory and experience. She 
began her life during Washington's second 
term as presideiu, and lived under every ad- 
ministration down to the time of President 
Cleveland. She heard the lirst .Metliodist 
I)islio]). liisho]) Asbnrv, preach and she re- 
members wiien Lal-'ayetle m.ide his tour oi 
this country. '1 he battles of New Orleans, 
Lake Erie, Lake Champlain and Lundy's 
Lane, as well as the famous contests between 
the Chesapeake and the Shannon were to her 
matters oi memory, so was the meteor-like 
career of Naj)oleon Bonaparte. She out- 
h\e~\ tlie era of stage coaclies. the tallow 
candle, the tire-place, the flint and steel, and 
witnessed the great ini])rovements made in 
every line in the nineteenth century. She 
Incd to see this nation grow from a feeble 
beginning to its ])resent grandeur and was 
a i)atriot in nil that the word implies. She 
believed lirmlx in Republican principles, and 
in religious faith was a Ba])tist. This noted 
woman was the graiulmothcr of Mrs. Brad- 
ley. 

Ebenezer Smith, the grandfather of Mrs. 
Bradley, was a ])hysician of Connecticut, 
and she has in her possession an old medical 



book which he purchased in i/'jy, it having 
been published in 1796. Her father. Dr. 
Harvey Smith, was also a practicing phy- 
sician and lived in the town of Dix for many 
years. \\ hen a young man he came from 
Connecticut to the Empire state, locating in 
Schuyler county. Here he married Hulda 
.Vnn GcKxlsell, who was born in Steuljen 
county. New York, and whose people were 
originally from \'ennont. 



GE0RC;E iL ELY. 

(ie<jrge M. l^Iy, who has for about a fifth 
of a century lieen prominently identified with 
educational work in Schuyler county, and 
who is now serving as supervisor of the 
town of Hector, was born on the old Dur- 
Umd farm, in this county. May u. 1861, a 
son of Harry and Harriet (Howell) Ely. 
The father was born in the town of Hector, 
December 3. 1837, and his ])araits were 
Richard and Hannah (1 lager) Ely, while 
the great-grandparents of our subject were 
Harry and Mary (Wickham) Ely. This 
branch of the Ely family came from Lyme, 
Connecticut, and in the latter ])art of the 
eighteenth century sought a home in New 
York, settling in Hector townshi]), Schuyler 
county. In. 1S37 Richard Ely was married 
in this ct)unty ami for many years was a 
prominent and influential citizen, serving as 
justice of the ])eace for a long ])eriod. and 
lining other ])(,sitions of public trust, hi> 
worth being widely acknowledged by all who 
knew him. 

lie had but one son. who grew to man- 
hood, ll.-irry lily, the father of our subject, 
who was reared to manhood in this county, 
and was educated in the subscription and 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



337 



district sclioc)ls. 1 ie engaged in farming as 
a means of livliiiood and in 1860 he secured 
as a companion and liel])niate tor the journey 
of life, Miss Harriet Huwcll. a daughter of 
f^Geof^ and Sallie (Durland) Howell, the 
, former an early settler oi Schuyler county. 
who on coming to this portion of the state 

■^ took up his al)ode in Hector township. Mr. 

V Ely first ])urchased one humlred and sixty 
acres of lafid and continued its culti\ation 
until the spring of 1868, when he purchased 
the farm upon which our suhject now re- 
siiles. the land heing then improved. To tin." 
further development and cultivation of that 
property he devotetl his energies tlu^ongh 
many years, making the i)lace his home until 
he was called to his final rest. In his fra- 
ternal relation he was a Mason and in pcjli- 
tics was a Democrat, giving loyal su])port 
to tlie party. On its ticket he was once the 
candidate for county sherifY. hut was de- 
feated. His death occurred July 22, 1899. 
In the family were five sons and two daugh- 
ters, hut the latter. Emma and Carrie, died 
in infancy. The sons are: George M., of 
this rc\iew ; Edward, who is engaged in 
mining', in Ouray. Colorado; Frank, who is 
engaged in cahinet-making and mining, at 
Silverton. Colorado. Richard, who is liv- 
ing on the old family homcstcatl and mar- 
rieil Mahcl Matthews: and Clarence, who is 
.'I telegraph t)perator on the Lehigh X'alley 
Railroad. 

Cpon the farm where he is now living", 
(ieorge M. Ely spent the greater part of his 
youth and to tlie puhlic school system he is 
indehted for the educational prixileges w hick. 
he enjoveti. He was an apt student, a 
thorough and accurate pupil, and thus when 
he attaine<l his majf)rity he was well i)rc- 
jiared for the work of the educator which he 
then look up and which he has since contin- 



ued with the exception of three years. He 
was for three years the principal of the Far- 
mer Union school ; for one year at Romulus ; 
for two years at Burdett : for two years at 
Odessa: three years at I'erry City: two 
years at Mecklenhurg: two years at Lodi : 
and for tlie past three years he has heen 
teacher of the schools of Logan. His work 
as an educator has heen highly acceptahle 
;uid he has been an active factor in promot- 
ing the development and progress of the 
schools of his portion of the state. In 1899 
and again in 1902 he was the Democratic 
candidate for the ofiice of school commis- 
sioner, and at hoth elections ran far ahead of 
his ticket. 

Mr. Ely is a member of Seneca Lodge. 
\o. 694, 1. O. O. F., and of Hector Lodge, 
Ao. T,]\. K. 1'. Tn politics he has always 
taken a deep and acti\e interest anil in a 
firm believer in Deniocrac}'. doing every- 
thing in his power to promote the growth 
and insure the success of the party. His 
life work, however, has been that of an edu- 
cator, mill since iSi)2 he has held a state 
teacher's certificate, a fact which is indica- 
tive of his broad learning, his scholarly at- 
tainmeirts and his capability as an educator. 



ATWOOD EVLETH. 

.\twt>od Evleth. now deceased, was for 
many years a prominent and inlluential as 
well ;is respected resident of Schuyler 
county. He was born in Orange county. Xew 
York, on the 8th of Jamiary. 181 5, and in 
his youth receivetl excellent educational jiriv- 
ileges. well fitting' him for the resi)onsiblc 
duties of life. After graduating from a 
school in his home localitx". he engaged in 



338 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



teacliing. skiving instruction in botli brandies 
of Engiisli learninfj usually taught in the 
jMiiilic scliools, and in nnisic. as well. In the 
latter art he was very pn^ficient and his 
skill in this direction made him popular in 
many social gatherings. 

On tiie _'4th of October. 1S47. Mr. 
Exletli was united in marriage to Miss Ruth 
llorton. a daugluer of Thonias I>. Horton, 
who was born in Dutchess county. New 
> (irk, and at a \ery early age in tlie history 
of Schuyler county, took uj) his abode here, 
the vear of his arrival being rd)out a century 
ago. Tlinmas llorton was united in mar- 
riage to I'hebe Conoro. on the 21st of Janu- 
ary. 1816. and they began their domestic 
life in Monterey. Schuyler county, which 
remained then" place of residence until they 
were called to the home beyond. They be- 
came the ])arents of eight childrn : Eliza 
1). : Maria Jane and Emeline. both deceased; 
Caroline, who is the wife of Lewis Miller, 
of Trum.-msliurg, New \'ork. by whom she 
has three children, Lydia .\nn, Ophelia and 
William: Henry; William; Daniel; and 
Kutli Ann. the wife of our subject. Daniel 
marrie<l I'.llen Ih'ose and they reside in Har- 
rington. Xew York. They had one child. 
Dr. A. I lonon. who w;is a jjhysician and 
died suddenly on the 20th of January. 1901. 

At the time of their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. h'vleth took up their abode in the town 
of Orange, Schuyler county, where he 
owned and oi)erated a farm of three hun- 
dred and ten acres. This extensive tract of 
land he placed under a high state of cultiva- 
tion, making it a very valuable and produc- 
ti\e farm. He carried on his work in a sys- 
tematic manner and was thus en.abled to pro- 
vide well for his f.imily. The household 
wa.s blessed with the presence of live chil- 
dren. I'hila lane, the eldest, became the 



wife of Edwin Hughey, and they resided at 
Sugar Hill, in the town of Dix, but both are 
now deceased. They left two children. Mell 
and I'urton. The younger members of the 
Evleth family are, Rachel Ann, Eliza, Phebe 
Helen and Ida May. After the death of 
her first husband Mrs. ]^\letli became the 
wife of O. C. Smith, who has also jiassed 
away, and she is now acting as housekeeper 
for .Mr. Dusenberry. in Watkins. She owns 
a nice farm on the hill and is well known in 
Schinler countv. where she has long resided, 
the circle of her friends being an extensive 
one here. 



AMOS MILLER. 



.\mos Miller is a representative of one 
of the honored pioneer families of Schuyler 
county. Early in the nineteenth century his 
grandfather came to this part of .\'ew \'ork 
and since that time memljers of the family 
ha\'e taken an active and important jiart in 
the work of public progress ;ui<l improve- 
ment here. Mr. Miller, of this review, was 
born in the town of Dix in 1841. His father, 
Ambrose Miller, now deceased, was born in 
Sclunlcr countw Xew \'ork. in 18J4. ;uid 
after arrixing at years of maturity he 
wedded Harriet Pierce. They hail a family 
of five children: .\mos. Delilia, Eannie, 
Mathias and David. ( )l' this number Delilia 
became the wife of Da\id .Silmon, who fol- 
lowed railroading fo sevend years but was 
exentually killed in the year 1897. His 
widow afterward became the wife of Abner 
(larrison, who is now a well-t(j-do farmer of 
Schuyler county, h'annie. rmother sister of 
oiu" subject, is the wife of John West, also 
an enter])rising farmer living in Odessa. 
Mathi;is was married in 1882 to Martha 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



339 



Eddie ami fdllowcil fanning ami gardening 
for nine years. His wife died in Odessa in 
1901. David wedded Mary \'oris(j and 
lives in Odessa, wiiere he is engaged in tlie 
growing of fruit. 

To tlie pulilic school system of his native 
county Amos Miller is indehted for the edu- 
cational i)ri\ilegcs which lie enjoyed. He 
left school at the age ui fifteen yeirs and 
lias since followed farming, winning very 
gratifying success in his work. He has be- 
come well known as a gardener and fruit 
raiser. Iiis thorough understanding and iiis 
diligence bringing to liini a \ery gratifying 
income. He has made a \ery close stntly of 
the needs of vegetables and fruit and thus 
knows how best to produce fruit of high 
grade, excellent (|ualily and sujieridr size, so 
th.'U his annual sales now .inmunt to (|uite a 
large figure. 

In the year 1885 Mr. .^liller was unitc<l 
m marriage to Margaret Lewis. At that 
time he jjurchased a farm, paying cash for ii. 
ha\ing previously saved the nmney from his 
own earnings. He has residetl continuously 
in -Montour I'alls since i<^85 and is well 
known as a representative man here In his 
political views he is a Republican but has 
never sought or desired ofhcc. pre 'erring to 
give his time and energies to his business 
atTairs. in which he has met with very 
creditable and desirable success. 



\\"F.F,Li.\(;'rox iio\\i:ll. 

W'ellingtnu I !')wcl!. one i>f the nitive sons 
of ihe h'mpire state, was liorn in Ithaca on 
the _'d of .\prii. 1830. his parents being 
Alanson Tajipan and Celestia ( Labarre^ 
Howell. The familv was founded in .\mcr- 



ica by his paternal great-grandfather. Ll- 
nathan Howell. wh<j emigrated from Wales 
and .settled at .\ortham])ton on the east end 
of Long Islancf. but afterward removed to 
Chester, Morris county, Xew Jersey. He 
took jiart in the Revolutionary war. be- 
ing in the engagement at Momouth. and he 
also furnished his (|uota of wood to Wash- 
ington's army when it was (|uartered near 
his home, llis son, .Vbr.iham Mowell. our 
subject's grandfather, was also in the ser- 
\ice one month, but took i)art in no regular 
engagement, though he was engaged in 
irkirmishing under deneral Wayne after the 
retreat from Monmouth. His wife, Char- 
ity, was the daughter of William Tappan, 
who was also from Wales, and was under 
the command of (iencr.il Washington in the 
battles of Irenton .and Springfield. Xew Jer- 
sey. These were not tlie only Revolution- 
ar\- heroes from whom our subject is 
descended, for his maternal grand f.allier, 
Henry Labarre. was also a soldier of that 
war. He belonged to an old family that 
came to the I'nited States from Xo\a 
Scotia, .\lanson T. Howell., our subject's 
father, was born in Chester. Morris county. 
Xew Jersey, on the 14th of September. 1800. 
and from there removed to Itliaci. .Xew 
^'ork. about i8j2. By trade he was a cab- 
inet-maker and wheelwright. In his family 
were twelve children, namely: Hamiibal, 
Darwin. Wellington, Lucinda, Marion. 
Elizabeth, .Myron, l')yron, Ta])pan, Jane. 
Milo and .\<ldison. I'onr of this number, 
Hannibal, r>yron. Tappan and Milo, were 
soldiers of the Ci\il war, enlisting in the 
I'nited St.ites army at (iroton, Xew ^'ork, 
and llaimibal and Ta])pan both laid down 
their lives on the altar of their country, the 
former being killed in the hard fought bat- 
tle of ( iett\sburi;. ;nid the l.itler at .\ntietam. 



340 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



W'ellingtuii Ilowcll was only two years 
old wlieii the family removed to the town 
of Lansing. He attended the district schools, 
but his educational privileges were some- 
wiiat limited, for at the early age of ten 
years he was bound out to a farmer, owing 
to the straightened financial condition of the 
parents. He stayed with the farmer for 
seven years, and then Ijegan working at the 
butcher's trade in Millport, at tlie time the 
Northern Central Railroad was being built 
through that place from Elmira to \\at- 
kins. in 1S48-1849. For eighteen months 
Mr. Howel! occupied tliat position, and then. 
on account of a cholera epidemic, the market 
was closed and he had to seek employment 
elsewhere. He began learning the painters 
trade, at Groton. New ^'ork. and followe<l 
that pursuit continuously until i86j. when 
he removed to the town of Hector, Schuyler 
county, and rented the farm upon which he 
now li\es, for three years. At the end of 
that time he purchased forty acres and later 
forty-eight acres adjoining on the west, but 
has since sold thirty-tliree acres, leaving him 
fifty-five acres, and with the e.\ceptio:i of 
ten acres, all of this is planted to fruit. He 
has resided continuously upon this fann 
since iSCiJ. and it is now a splendidly de- 
veloped property, the owner being recog- 
nized as one of the leading horticulturists 
f)i the community. 

On the iJth of October. 1853. Mr. 
Howell was united in marriage to Miss 
Ti!sther R. W'ickham. a daughter of Will- 
iam and Martha (Hultz) W'ickham. She 
is a native of the town of Hector, and their 
marriage has been blessed with seven chil- 
d.ren : Laxiroii .Mom'oe. born July 15. 1854; 
Willis Myron, born June _'<>. 1856: Otis 
Emerson, born January 15. 1858: Marine 
Emmett. born l'"ebruary 27,. 1860: Ermina. 



who was born October 17. i8(jj. and died 
.\ugust 20, 1865; Laverna, born January 5, 
1865 : Estelle. born June jo, 1867: and Wel- 
lington Elvin. born June 21, 1870. The 
family attend the I'resbyterian and Metho- 
dist churches. In his political 'views Mr. 
Howell is a Repul)lican and for three years 
he served as highway commissioner of his 
town. A self-made man. he deserves great 
credit for what he has accomplished, for 
from the early age of ten years he has been 
dependent entirely upon his own resources 
and whatever he has achieved has l)een the 
direct reward of his labors, his enterprise 
;uid his diligence. 



RE\'. CHRISTIAN W. WINNE. 

Christian W. Winne is a retired minister 
now living in Montour Falls, where he is 
filling the ])osition of justice of the peace, 
lie has marked influence on the moral de- 
\eIopment and upl)uilding of his community 
and wherever he has lived he has been hon- 
ored and respected for his devotion to the 
cause of Christianity and to the welfare of 
his fellow men. He was born in L'lster 
county. New York. I'ebruary 5. 1838. and 
was provided with excellent educational 
privileges. After accjuiring his preliminary 
education in the public schools he became a 
student in Ro.xbury .Academy, where he at- 
tcniled in 1859-60. He then Ix^gan teaching 
.school and followed that profession with 
good success for five years, imparting clearly 
and concisely to others the knowledge he had 
ai(|uired. In 1869 he entered the Union 
Theological Seminary in New A'ork city, 
with the intention of preparing for the min- 
istrv. and was graduated from that institu- 



! 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



34 • 



tion ill May, 1871. Heat once entered upon 
tlie work of his holy office and i<n- a nnnil)cr 
ot years devoted liis attcnlion untiringly 
to preaching the gospel. 

Immediately after his graduation Mr. 
W inne was united in marriage to Miss Isa- 
bella Gunn, of Xew York city, and sought a 
lield of labor in the west, joiinng ii home mis- 
sionary in Minnesota. They remained in 
that state for five years, after which they re- 
turned to the east. Mr. Winne taking charge 
of the church in South Jersey, near Atlantic 
City, where he remained ior three years. 
On the expiration of that peri(jd he went to 
Tuckahoe, Xew Jersey, where he continued 
for two years, and when he left that place 
he accepted a call from the t lunch in Cedar- 
ville, continuing as its pastor for five years, 
during which time the cluuxh made rapid 
and satisfactory progress, its influence 
being greatly extended. I lis licaltli, how- 
ever, failed him because of his work in 
that place ami he was forced to resign. 
After resting f(jr a few months he accepted 
a call from a church at Bellemore, Long 
Jslanil, where he remained as pastor for 
two years, when his health again failed 
him and for a year thereafter he engagetl 
ir. nn labor, residing at Jamaica, Long 
Island. He was next called to the pastor- 
;ite of two ciiurches in Schuyler county, 
Xew ^'ork. th.ise of I'ine (iro\e and 
'J'yfone. He continued to labor among the 
people of those congregations and of the 
vicinity for five years, but again his unre- 
mitting attention to his work proved detri- 
mental to his health and he was forced to re- 
sign. Therefore he removed to Havana, 
now Montour Falls, in order to provide his 
daughters with better scIkjoI privileges. In 
1 893 he recciveil a call from the church in 
Xewlield, Tompkins county, Xew York, 



where he remained fur two years, when he 
once more resigned, although he livetl in that 
place for six years. In 1899 he came to 
Montour Falls, which is now liis jjlace of resi- 
lience. He is not now actively connected 
with the ministry because of his health, but 
in all possiljle ways he labored to promote 
the growth and extend the influence and 
work of the church and to reclaim his fellow 
men from the bondage of sin fur the Mas- 
ter's sake. 

L'nto .Mr. and Mrs. Winne were born 
two children : Isabellc (i., who is now acting 
as her father's housekeeper; and Elizabeth 
G., the wife of J. H. I'ettit, who resides in 
L'rbana, Illinois, where he is conn.ected with 
the state experiment station in chemistry. 
In ^Jay, 1901, Mr. Winne was called ujjon 
til mourn the loss of his wife, whose death 
v\as deeply regretted by many friends as well 
as her innnediate family, for she was a lady 
possessed of many admirable traits of char- 
acter, her excellent qualities or heart and 
mind endearing her to all with whom she 
came in contact. 

When the country became involved in 
Civil war .Mr. \\ inne eidisted at the first call 
foi troops. .\i)ril 15. 1861, at Kingston. 
Ulster county, Xew York, becoming a mem- 
ber of Company D, Twentieth Xew York 
Militia, but was not mustered int<i. service at 
that time. Later he wem to .Michigan ami 
at Detroit. December 31. 1863. he enlisted in 
Company D, Twenty-second Michigan \'ol- 
unteer Infantry. After being mustered in 
the regiment proceeded to Chattanooga, 
Tennessee, where Mr. W'inne remained for 
eighteen months, and was then transferred 
to the Twenty-ninth Michigan Infantry, 
with which he served until September, i8(>5. 
lie participated in the battles of Chatta- 
nooga. Resaca, .Mtoona. Kenesaw Mountain 



342 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



and Marietta and was all through the At- 
lanta campaign, including the siege and cap- 
ture of the city. He also took part in a great 
many shirniishes. was always at ihe front in 
the thickest of the light and saw all the hor- 
rors of war. On account of the hardships 
he endured his health was permanently im- 
paired, which has unfitted him for active bus- 
ness in any line, although he is now serving 
a^. justice of the peace, proving faithful, 
prompt and reliable in office. At present he 
is commander of Montour Post, Xo. 22. G. 
A. R. His life has been a potent element 
for good in the \arious communities in 
which he has resided. As a minister he ap- 
pealed not only to the hearts but to the minds 
of his auditors, his doctrines being logical, 
forceful and convincing. Not until failing 
health forced his retirement did he put aside 
his labors as a pastor and to the present his 
work of Christian teaching and influence is 
carried on. 



JAMES D. HOPE. 

This gentleman needs no special intro- 
duction to the readers of this volume because 
he is very widely known in Schuyler county, 
if noti)ersonally. then by reputation, because 
of his e.Kcellent photographic work, especial- 
ly in the line of landscape photography. 
Mr. Hope was born in West Rutland, Ver- 
mont, I-'ebruary i, 1846, and is a son of 
James and Julia M. (Smith) Hope. The fa- 
ther, who was an artist of considerable fame, 
was born at Drygrange, Scotland, on the 
29th of Xovember, 181S, and was a son of 
Henry and Helen Haag (or Hague) Hope. 
Before he was a year old his parents removed 
to Berwick on the Tweed, and there his 
mother soon afterward died. In 1827 his 



father brought him to America, settling in 
the rough region of eastern Canada, where 
the latter died of cholera. Captain Hope 
was the only child and being now lef^ an or- 
phan he decided to remain no longer in Can- 
ada, and walked one hundred antl fifty miles 
to Fairhaven, X'ermont, where he became 
ajiprenticed to a wagon-maker for a term of 
five years. After completing his apprentice- 
ship he spent two years in Castleton Semin- 
ary — the years 1839 and 1840, — for he had 
realized the value of an education and felt its 
needs as a preparation for Its own business 
ci'.reer. In 1840 and 1841 he engaged in 
teaching school at West Rutland, Vermont, 
and it was there that he met and married 
Miss Julia M. Smith, the wedding being cel- 
ebrated September 20, 1841. 

Up to the time of entering the seminary 
Captain Hope was undecided as to a life 
plan. His genius as an artist had begun to 
develop in childhood when he amused him- 
•self by caricaturing his schoolmates, sketch- 
ing battle scenes and modeling in blue clay, 
ll is true he usually did his work with a 
burnetl stick upon a shingle, but nevertheless 
he displayed a talent and genius which was 
to be developed, in later years winning him 
fame. However, when he entered the sem- 
inary no thought had entered his mind that 
his skill coulil be put to any practical benefit, 
and it was his ambition to become a soldier, 
but his marriage caused him to abandon this 
])lan. In addition to teaching he followed 
other employment which would give him 
temporary sup])ort. In the meantime he 
made several unsuccessful attempts to ob- 
tain instruction in ])ainting. I'inally he gave 
up all hope of becoming an artist and was 
on the eve of engaging in another enterprise 
when he suffered an accident that changed 
his plans. He was disabled by a terrible ax 



THE BlUGKAPllICAL RECORD 



343 



wuund in liis ankle joint, and fur a time was 
despondent, liis best efforts seeming to result 
in no good, but soon, however, his naturally 
Courageous sjiirit reasserted itself and. re- 
solving that he would conquer in spite of 
seeming opposition and hardship::', and wliile 
he was still suffering with his wound, he 
secured some common paints and a board 
upon which he painted a portrait of himself. 
Such was his success that sitters began to 
throng- to him and before he was fairly able 
to walk he had found liis place as a i^ortrait 
painter and in a short time had earnetl over 
one hundred dollars. lie fully recovered 
from the accident which lbre;ilened to dis- 
able him for life and thus when nearly twen- 
ty-tive years of age he set to worl: in earnest 
at the calling for which nature had evidently 
intendetl him. He obtained suitable books 
and materials and by untiring sti-dy and toil 
became quite proficient in his ar). so tiiat he 
ventured to open a studio in Montreal. 
There he met with much more than the suc- 
cess of the ordinary young artist, but after 
two years the health of his family demanded 
a change and he returned to Rutland county, 
\"ermont. There he became ac(|iiainte(l with 
a landscape painter. \\'illiani iiari. who 
noticed Captain Hope's passionate lo\e for 
nature and the readiness with which he 
sketched and encouraged him to devote his 
talent to landscape painting. About this 
time an oppoitunjty presented itself whereby 
he might teach painting and drawing in the 
Castleton Seminary, and he resorted to this 
method to provide for his family until his 
pencil could more directly win for him for- 
tune and fame. One of his pictures, a view 
of Castleton lake, he sold to the .\mericaii 
.\rt League Union. In 1851 he built a resi- 
dence in Castleton. which is still owned by 
bis heirs. The folk)wing year be opened a 



studio ill .\ew \'ork city, wiiere he si)eiit the 
winter months through twenty years, with 
the e.xception of the period whic'i he passed 
ing the army. At the outbreak of the Civil 
war his military spirit reasserted itself and 
he took an active part in recruiting and or- 
g.iiiizing a company of soldiers, of which he 
w as elected captain, the organization becom- 
ing Company B of the Secontl Vermont In- 
fantry. He was first under lire at the battle 
of lUill Run, an<l he took part in tle\en hotly 
Contested engagements, including the second 
b.ittle of Bull Run and other battles of the 
Peninsular campaign under (ieneral McClel- 
lan, together with the battles of 1^'redericks- 
burg and Antietam. At the end of eighteen 
months, on account of his health, he w^as 
honoral)ly discharged and returned to his 
home in the Creen Mountain state, dividing 
his time between that and his studio in New 
York city. 

Captain Hope lirst visited Schuyler 
county, December 20, 1870, in order to ex- 
plore W'atkins Cilen, and was so deeply im- 
pressed with the beauties and opportunities 
for the landscape i)ainter that he remo\ed 
his family here in 1872. built a gallery and 
residence in the Glen and took up his abode 
here. His first glen picture. "Rainbow 
1-alls." was painted for 11. 1). Rolfe. of Xew 
^'ork city. He ])aintetl a large number of 
glen views, which for their beauty and ar- 
tistic merit have been unetjuailed by the work 
of any artist who has taken thi-, section of 
the country as a subject for his brush. A less 
i:ainstaking ;ind conscientious artist might 
have accomplished more work and have in- 
creased his emolumenls, but ;-uch was Captain 
Hope's loyalty to his art, his belief in his 
divine commission to paint and his conscien- 
tious scruples as a Christian, that no induce- 
iiient could ha\e persuaded him to pmstitute 



344 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



his genius to any base, unworthy motive of 
self-aggran(hzement. His interpretation of 
nature in landscape scenes Ijetrayed the touch 
of the master. In his liandling of such sub- 
jects power and gentleness combined to pro- 
duce a rare charm of style and many of his 
pictures of Vermont sceneiy are pronounced 
incomparable. One of his finest productions 
is a painting of the Army of the Potomac, 
exhibiting eighty thousand men encamped 
on I'amunkey river, with General McClellan 
and his stafif in the foreground. It was 
painted from a sketch made on the spot dur- 
ing tile progress of tlie Civil war and is val- 
ued at twenty-five th<jusand dollars. A 
series of pictures of Antietam from different 
points is said to be a most realistic production 
of this sanguinary battle-field. This picture 
was exhibited in Chicago and also before the 
Grand Army of the Republic in Washington, 
D. C. In the New York state building at 
the Pan-American Exposition in Bufi'alo, 
one entire floor was given to Captain Mope's 
collection, and of it the Boston "Times" said 
that in historical interest it was second to 
none on the globe. Captain Hope belonged 
to what is termed the realistic school of art- 
ists and has been called the father of this 
school in America. It is pleasing to know 
that fortune bestowed some favors upon him 
while he was yet able to enjoy the benefit of 
them, nor does time dim the fame which has 
been accorded to him. For years Captain 
Hope was an elder in the Presbyterian 
church and throughout his life was a most 
earnest Christian man. He died at W'atkins, 
October 20, 1892. 

In the family of Captain and Mrs. Hope 
were five children: Henry F., who was 
born in West Rutland. Vermont, wedded 
Mary Easr^i and now lives in Watkins 
Tames D. is the second in order of birth. 



Julia -Vdelaide, who was born in Rutland, 
\erniont, became the wife of George A. 
Stearns and died at Parana in Argentine Re- 
public, where she now lies buried. She left 
one son, All^rt O. Stearns, of Washington, 
D. C. Jessie and an infant, who lived but 
a few months, completed the family. 

James D. Hope spent his boyhood in one 
of the most beautiful districts of the Green 
Mountain state, his parents removing to Cas- 
tleton about 1850. There he was reared to 
manhood, attending school. In 1867 he 
went to Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he pre- 
pared to enter the State University, but on 
account of trouble with his eyes he was ob- 
liged to abandon his studies and for a time 
thereafter had no particular occupation until 
after the removal of the family to Watkins 
in 1872. He then went to Niagara Falls, 
where he mastered the art of photography, 
remaining there for about three years, after 
which he returned to Watkins and has since 
been known as the glen phologrni)her, mak- 
ing a specialty of landscape phot'^graphy. 

Mr. Hope was married in Troy. New 
York, July 11; 1878, to Miss Emily J. Akes- 
ter, who was born at Roxliam, Canada, a 
daughter of Robert and Sarah (Bravinder) 
Akester. Mr. and Mrs. Hope now have two 
children : Helen B., who is a grailuate of 
the high school of Watkins, of the class of 
1899; and James A., who was graduated in 
the Watkins high school with the class of 
1901 and is now in Rutger's College, of New 
Brunswick, New Jersey. 

Mr. Hope exercises his right of franchise 
in support of the men and measures of the 
Republican party and has served as trustee of 
the \ illage. braternally he is connected with 
Jeffer.son Lodge. No. 332, 1". & A. M. : Wat- 
kins Chapter. No. 182, R. A. M. : Cananda- 
saga Lodge, I. O. O. !•". ; the Improved Order 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



345 



oj Red Men, tlie Sons of \eterans; tlie An- 
cient Order of L'nitetl Workmen : and in llie 
last named he lias not only filled all tlie chairs 
but has also been a delegate to the grand 
lodge. 



L. II. DURLAXD. 



Fortunate is the man who has hack of 
him an ancestry honorahlc and distin- 
guished, and happy is he if his lines of life 
are cast in harmony therewith. In traits 
and in character Mr. Durland, of Walkins, 
is a worthy representative of his race. He 
comes of a family very prominait in the his- 
tory of this country, the representatives be- 
ing noted for loyalty, intelligence and de- 
votion to the ])ul)lic good, fan (ierretse 
Oi^rlandt was tiie first of the famil\- to emi- 
rate to this country, and became the progen- 
itor here. He sailed from Holland to the 
New Netherlands in 1652, and tradition says 
of him that he was then a young man of 
about twenty-four years. He lived to the 
age of eighty-four years. His career was 
in every way creditable for he was industri- 
ous, energetic, intelligent, enterprising and 
just, and he is .said to have borne an active 
part in the development of the community 
in which he lived. He first settled in Brook- 
lyn, near the Fulton street ferry, and later 
in the village of Bedford. In 1687 the court 
of sessions ordered the town to make choice 
of a new conuuissioner to succeed Louis 
Cuysbert, and Jan Gerretsc Dorlandt was 
chosen and served until 1701. 'i'hese com- 
missioners were among the most important 
and prominent men of the community, and 
i)ecamc the local law makers and guardians 
of the law. In if')99 he ])erformc'd the duties 
of collector of Brooklyn, probably in con- 
nection with the diuies of townsmen. He 
ao 



was twice marrietl and had ten children, and,, 
ifis believed, was buried in the private burial 
ground of the faiuilv. His descendants are 
today numerous and widely scattered, many 
of them residing in Xew York, New Jersey, 
Illinois, California, Nebraska, Jowa. Ma.ss- 
achusetts and .Michigan. Of these the sub- 
ject of this re\ iew is a direct descendant. 

The Durland patriots were \ery numer- 
ous in Pennsylvania, and large luimbers of 
them enlisted and fought in the continental 
ranks during the Revolutionary war. They 
were Presbyterians and their community lay 
near the center of a thrilling theater of ac- 
tion, overrun successively by battalions of 
British and Continentals and in close com- 
munication with the camps of both armies. 
Tidings of the stirring sictories of Trenton 
and Princeton reached them from the cast; 
I'randywine, (iermantown. W'hitemarsh and 
N'alle)' Forge were distant but a few miles 
to the west and southwest; most of the 
American troops jjrogressed within earshot 
at Newtown on the north; and fifteen miles 
south lay Ihiladclphia. whose occupation by 
the British servetl to e\asi)erate the children 
of Pennsylvania and to stimulate still 
further the ])atri()t zeal. In such an envir- 
onment the youth of tliat region necessarily 
sided with one army or the other, and al- 
though the allegiance of other families was 
doubtful or di\iiled. the Durlands were 
unanimous in rall\ing under the l)anner of 
\mericau freedom, and fought throughout 
the entire war. In the war of 1812 the 
family was represented on both sides, but 
those on the British side belonged to the 
Cruiadian I Hnlands, and the far greater 
number of the war were with the Ameri- 
can arni\-. ( )nce mure in the Civil war the 
family ilivided on luilitary and political 
lines, a remarkablv large number serving as 



346 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



soldiers of the L'nion. wliile only an iiisij^nili- 
cant fraction was ideiitilied with tlie south- 
ern Confederacy. J he military history of 
the Durland family, as a whole, is note- 
worthy. Twenty-one Durlands are knt)wn to 
have participated in tlie Revolutionary war. 
sixteen on the American side and fi\e on the 
J^>ritish side. In the Civil war we have the 
record of over fifty who served under the 
sta.rs and strijjes, while six ser\ed under the 
stars and bars. Taking a brief, but com- 
prehensi\e survey of the Durlands in Amer- 
ican, we observe that they have engaged in 
nearly all the honorable avenues of activity 
open to American citizenship, although the 
great majority have been tillers of the soil. 
There have been twelve clergymen — four 
Quakers, four Presbyterians, two Metho- 
dists, one Episcopalian and one Congrega- 
tional preacher ; ten members of the state 
legislature; one distinguished member of 
congress: three members of tlie Canadian 
parliament ; four bank presidents ; seventeen 
physicians; fifteen attorneys; four editors; 
twelve teachers; eight dentists; twelve man- 
agers of industrial concerns; several manu- 
facturers ; tliirty-four machinists ; twelve 
millers; four coal operators; ten sheriffs; si.K 
postmasters; and five justices of the peace; 
besides at least a dozen connected with rail- 
roads in various capacities ; seven engaged in 
the insurance business and several in tlie real 
estate business. The family in different 
branches has also been represented among 
the pioneers in the California gold fields. .\ 
Durland descendant is now in command of 
the Royal Canadian Artillery in the citadel 
f)f Quel)ec. and his son is an officer in the 
British army in India. .Xnother descendant. 
Ensign Wilfred \'. Ptnvelson. recently 
rendered valuable serxice in determining the 



ongni oi the explnsion that destroyed the 
L'nited States battleship, Maine, in the 
Havana harlx)r, and still another served on 
L nited States battleship Maine, in the 
war against Spain, and participated in the 
brilliant navy actions in West Indian 
waters. 

L. H. Durland. of this review, has the 
distinction of being identified with this i)at- 
riotic and prominent family. He is a son of 
John and Maria (Hulse) Durland, and a 
grandson of Charles and Lydia (Terry) 
Durland. His great-grandparents were 
Lharies and Jane (Swarthout) Durland, 
both natives of Orange county', New York. 
Lewis H. Durland was born in the city of 
Xewburg, New York, December 9. 1832. 
;tnd jnirsued his etlucation in the public 
schools of Minnesink, Orange county, to 
which place his parents removed when he 
was only two years of age. Aher complet- 
ing bis education he accepted a position as 
clerk in the freight office of the Erie Rail- 
road Company, at Hornellsville. New York, 
and with that work was identified for some 
time. He was then made conductor on a 
train running between Rochester and El- 
mira. and Buffalo and Elmira. New \'ork. 
being connected with the Erie road from the 
i6ih of I-"ebruary. 1852, until December 19, 
1869. Erom 1870 until 1871 he was con- 
ductor on the Michigan Southern Railrtiad. 
and at the latter date he came to W'atkins. 
where he established a hardware business, 
which he has since conducted with excellent 
success. ha\ing for more than thirty years 
l,ccn numbered among the progressive mer- 
chants of this place. 

On the loth of October, 1867, Mr. Dur- 
land was married to Sarah E. Bailey, a na- 
tive of Livonia. New York, and thev have 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



347 



become the parents of tour children : 
Cliarles Mortimer. Frances Louise, Sarah 
Elizabeth and Lewis Hudson. 

Mr. Durland is a member of the .Masonic 
fraternity which he joined at Cornintj. Xew 
'S'ork. and he has taken the thirty-second 
degree of the Scottish Rite and is also iden- 
tifietl with the Knight Templar Command- 
ery. Politically he is a Democrat, and for 
six years has been a member of _the lioard 
of village trustees, while for three years he 
has been a member of the county lK)ard of 
supervisors, and has also been a trustee of 
Cook Academy, at Montour Falls. Xew 
\'ork. for twenty-live years, and a member 
of the e.xecuti\c board. He l)elongs to 
the l^aptist church, of W'atkins. of which 
lor a quarter of a centiu\v he li.is been 
a trustee, and it will thus Ije seen that 
his fraternal and trade relations are in- 
dicative of a high order of American citi- 
zenship. He is justl)' classed among the 
leading men of Schuyler county, enjoying 
the esteem and confidence of the community, 
and it may be said of him as it was of the 
founder of the family in America, that "he 
is an industrious, intelligent, enterprising, 
energetic and just man." 



GEORGE H. GOLTRY. M. D. 

l'"or many years Dr. George H. (ioltry 
was successfully engaged in practice in 
Schuyler county and ranked among the lead- 
ing physicans of this portion of the state. 
I'Ut at the present time he is li\ing retired, 
his home, which is called "Locust Terrace." 
being pleasantly situated in the town of 
Reading, two miles west of W'atkins. The 
Doctor was honi in this town December 3, 
1 83 J. and is a son of W^illiam and Rebecca 



( lleilden) Goliry. The father, a farmer In- 
occupation, was probably born in Tompkins 
county, Xew York, and the moiher's birth 
occurred either in Schuyler county or 
near by. 

The subject of this review was reared to 
manhood in Schuyler county and when but 
twelve years of age accompanied his parents 
to the town of Tyrone, where the father pur- 
chasetl a farm, there carrying on agricultural 
l)nrsuils for a number of years, after which 
he went to Iowa, where his last days were 
passed. While li\ing under the parental 
roof the Doctor acquired a fair common- 
school education and further continued his 
studies in the seminary at Dundee, which he 
entered when twenty-three years of age, 
spending one term in that institution. After 
leaching for a time he again was a student 
ii; the Dundee Seminary for one term and 
once more he followed the teacher's voca- 
ti(jn. .Ml this, how ever, he regarded as an 
initial step to a professional career, for it 
was his desire to engage in the practice of 
medicine and to this end he became a student 
in the office and under the direction of Dr. 
.\mbrose Heddcn. his maternal uncle, who 
was located in the town of Reading. Sub- 
sequently Dr. Goliry pursued a course of 
lectures in Geneva, New York, and one in 
the Huffalo Medical College, being grad- 
uated in the latter institution when about 
twenty-seven years of age. He then began 
practice in Port .\lleghen\-, I'ennsylvania, 
where he remained for a quarter of a 
century. 

.\ftcr he h.id li\ed there for seven years. 
Dr. Goltry returned to the town of Reading 
and was married on the 3d of December, 
1S67. to Miss Martha Xichols. whose birth 
otcurred in this town, her parents being John 
H. and I'.slhor A. (Townsend) .\ichols. 



348 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Slie, too, obtained a good education and suc- 
cessfully followed the teacher's profession 
for a number of years. Two children were 
born unto them: George A., who died in 
Pennsylvania, at the age of ten years; and 
Arthur X., who was born in Port Allegheny, 
September 13, 1873. He wedded Anna May 
Totman, of the town of Reading and is now 
erigaged in farming. 

After practicing his profession w ith suc- 
cess for twenty-five years Dr. Goltry was ob- 
liged to gi\e up his chosen work on account 
of failing health and in 1885 took up his 
abode at his present home in the town of 
Reading, wiiere he owns ninety-five acres of 
land, on which he is now living a retired life. 
Since casting his first presidential ballot for 
James Buchanan in 1856 he has been an 
earnest Demucrat, interested in the success 
and growth of the party, yet has never been 
a politician. He became identified with ilic 
Masonic fraternity at Olean when about 
thirty years of age and filled varicms offices 
in the lodge in Pennsylvania, including that 
of worshipful master. He was one of the 
organizers and a charter member of Liberty 
Lodge, Xo. 505, at Port Allegheny and in 
order to become worshipful master he had 
to take the past master's degree. While en- 
gaged in the practice of his ])rofession Dr. 
(Joltry read broadly everything bearing up- 
on the science of medicine and tending to 
promote the efficiency of the labors of the 
physician and his com])rehensi\e knowledge 
and accuracy in applying his learning to the 
needs of suffering humanity made him a 
capable ])hysician, whose services were 
widely sought. In Schuyler, covnity he has 
man)- warm friends who esteem him highly, 
not onlv because of his succsstul |)rofes- 
sional career, but iiy re.ison of his genuine 
personal worth. 



It will be interesting in this connection to 
note something of the family history of Mrs. 
Goltry, who belongs to one of the old and 
honored families of the county. Her father, 
John H. Xichols, was born near Balston 
Spa, Saratoga county, Xew York. April 3, 
1816, and her mother, Esther Xichols, was 
a native of Massachusetts. By their re- 
spective parents they had been brought to 
Schuyler county in early childliood. Mr. 
Xichols was the only son of Amassa and 
]\]artha (Chapman) Xichols and had four 
sisters. He died in Reading, January 29, 
1887, at the age of seventy years and ten 
months, and in an editorial notice of his 
.death the following account of his life his- 
tory was given : "While yet a babe in arms 
his parents moved into that part of the pres- 
ent town of Dix known as Sugar Hill, and, 
after four or five years moved into the town 
of Reading, then a part of Steuben county, 
where he remained until removed by death. 
His educational advantages were confined 
to the district schools of the primitive days 
aside from six months at Dundee and six 
months at Plattsburg, which latter period 
was suddenly terminated by a journey on 
foot across the country to Reading, induced 
by homesickness — a love of home having 
been one of his leading traits of character. 
Ill accordance with the ideas (jf an early day 
he was put at hard work when quite young 
and his early habits of industry Ijecame so 
strong uiJon him that his toil ceased only 
with that feebleness which came with dis- 
e.iSc. His father being a blacksmith, the re- 
sponsibility of looking after the farm was 
placed largely upon his shoulders when Init 
twelve or fourteen years old: but the experi- 
ence thus attained mailc him most successful 
in his c:illing, and a competence rewarded 
his efforts. 



I 

I 



THE BIOGRArHICAL RECORD 



349 



"When twenty-two years of age Mr. 
Nicliols was united in marriage to Estlier 
Ann Townsend. of tlie town of Starkey, 
Yates county. Tliis event occurred Marcli 
31. 1839, and was followed by a residence 
of seven years in the old hotel in Ireland- 
ville. Then they took possession of the 
dwelling which had l)een erected across the 
street nearly opposite their lirst home and 
beneath the roof-tree of wliich they have 
shared each other's joys and sorrows for up- 
wards of forty years. The nine children 
which blessed this union ha\e all lived to 
reach tiie years of manhood and woman- 
hood, the oldest being forty-six and the 
youngest twenty-se\en years old. Tiieir 
names and residences are as follows: Amasa 
]I., in business in New York city: Martha 
Z., wife of Dr. G. H. Goltry; Mary A., wife 
of L. A. Randall, both of Reading: Henry 
T., in business in New York city; Charlotte 
A., living at lujnie : I'.mma Jcnnette, wife of 
Rev. Seward Robson, of Seneca Falls, Xew 
"S'ork; John Richard, a Congregational min- 
ister, residing in Garretts\il!e, Ohio; Charles 
\\'.. a bi;ilder of Lynxville, Wisconsin; and 
Louis L., a student in Oberlin College, Ohio. 
On January i, 1885, they were all together 
at the homestead, an event that had not oc- 
curred before in eleven years, and which has 
not since taken place. All but two, who 
were necessarily detained, were ])rescnt to 
lay their beloved father to rest. 

"The deceased, when twenty-five years 
of age, united with the Baptist church at 
Reading Center, of which he h.ul ever since 
been an liDUored and cxeniplru'v member. 
For twenty-five years he served as deacon, 
haxing officiated in this capacity at the com- 
munion of the church, held January 9th of 
this year. His belief in the truths of Chris- 
tianity resulted in more than mere profes- 



sion. His faith was deej) and abiding, and 
not without works of lasting character. In 
his death, indeed, the church has lost one of 
its most sincere followers and stanchest sup- 
porters. He served the town of Reading as 
supervisor, while it was yet a portion of the 
county of Steuben, and again at the forma- 
tion of Schuyler county. He was postmaster 
of Reading during nearly a third of a cen- 
tur}-, holding the office for many years, as he 
did other minor offices, not for emolument, 
but as an accommodation to the community. 
J le was ever active in matters advancing the 
interests of national, state or town affairs, 
yel the same unassuming m;inner and con- 
scientiousness that characterized his course 
in pri\-ate life were api)arent in the discharge 
01 duties of a public character, and served to 
render his influence for the right as potent as 
a citizen, as a neighbor and friend, as in the 
n'ore tender relations of the home. Mrs. 
Xichols still survives her husband and is now 
Ining at Reading Center at the advanced 
age of ninet}--four years. 



H. I'ROPER STILW ELL, M. I). 

In a i)rofession where advancement de- 
jjends upon individual merit, upon thorough 
study, close application and laudable ambi- 
tion. I">r. II. I'rojier Stilwell has attained a 
\ery creditable position. He is a native of 
the town of Hector. lj<irn November 30, 
1846, his parents being Edward and Susan 
(Garrison) Stilwell. His paternal grand- 
father, James Stilwell, served in the Revolu- 
tionary war, probably enlisting irom Dela- 
ware county. New York'. He was wounded 
while in the army ;uid .ifterward reccivetl 
a jiension in recognition of the duty which 



350 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



iic had rendered Im the cause of inde- 
pendence. In 1800 lie removed from Dela- 
ware county. Xew \'ork, by team and took 
up his abode in the eastern part of Scliuy- 
ler county. He was accompanied by his 
family, consisting of his wife and nine chil- 
dren, and., with the exception of the two 
youngest children, the others all walked l)y 
the si<le of the wagon. 

Edward Stilwell. the father of our sub- 
ject, was a native of Delaware county, and 
accompanied his parents on their removal 
ft) this county. He was the fifth son and, 
after locating here, he materially assistCvl in 
reclaiming the wild land for the purpose of 
cuiti\ation. .\fter arri\ing at years of ma- 
turity lie was twice married and h.'id eleven 
children by each wife, the Doctor being the 
youngest of the entire number. One child 
of the first marriage is still living, and seven 
of the second marriage yet survive, 'flic 
father died when the l)oct(jr was about three 
years of age. He was drafted for service 
in the war of iSij. but sent a substitute, for 
he felt I hat his iirsl duty w;is to his faiuily, 
who needed his care ami attention. 

( )n attaining the usual age for entrance 
in the schools Dr. Stilwell became a student 
in the localitv in which he lived, rmd his 
■preiiminarv- educational i)ri\ileges were sup- 
])lemenled 1)\- study in the St;irke\- .Seminary 
and in the Portland Normal .School, lie 
then turneil his attention to the teacher's 
profession, which he followed in the district 
schools for eight years with good success. 
Later be determined to take up the study of 
medicine and became a student in the medi- 
cal de])artment 01 the I'niversity of lUiffalo, 
in which he was graduated in .\prii, 1875. 
'Ihoroiigldy e(|uii)])ed for his chosen work 
by a coiuprehensive knowledge of the prin- 
ciples of i1k" science of medicine, as well as 



by natural abilit\', he oi)ened an office and 
entered up(jn practice in the village of Bur- 
dett, where he has since been located and his 
l^rofessional skill has secured him a large 
])atronage. He is continually broadening 
bis knowledge and promoting his efficiency 
by study, reading and investigation. He 
was a member of the oiunty medical so- 
ciety and for several years .served as its 
jiresident .and secretary. 1 le has taken jjost- 
graduate work in dilYerent post-graduate 
schools of .\ew ^'ork city, and is today one 
of the foremost representatives of the med- 
ical ))rofession in Schuyler county. Any- 
thing which tends to bring to man the key 
to that complex mystery which we call life 
is of intere.st to the Doctor, and his profes- 
sional reading has been broad and varied, 
making him a most cajmble physician. 

On the lotb of December, 1900, the Doc- 
tor was united in marriage to Miss Libbie 
l-'inck. .1 daughter of Louis and .\bile 
(Elliott) l-"inck. The lady was a native of 
Scoharie county, Xew N'ork, and is highly 
esteemed in Biu-dctt, where the circle of her 
friends is extensive. The Doctor is (|uite 
a prominent Mason, having joined the craft 
in iSjt). at Trumansburg. lie took the de- 
grees of the blue lodge and chapter .and 
later be transferretl his meml)ersliip in the 
lodge to Watkins. He likewise belongs to 
Walkins Tent, Xo. 166, of the Knights of 
the Maccai)ees. 

.\lthough the Doctor has enjoyed a lib- 
eral i)ractice which has made heavy de- 
mands ujion lii-i time rmd attention, he h;is 
.'ilso been connected with other business in- 
terests, having at one time been a partner in 
a mercantile establishment in Burdett. un- 
der the lirm n.ime of Stilwell cH: I'inck. that 
association having been maint.'iined for 
se\en ve.'us. lie then sold out to bis iiariner 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



55" 



;mi(1 tlinmgli another se\en years he was a 
member of the hrm of H. C. Smith & Com- 
])aiiy. dealing" in coal and agricultural im- 
plements. Since selling out to ^fr. Sniitii, 
in 1898, he has given considerable attention 
to the real estate business. He has at differ- 
ent times owned one-third of the village of 
Burdett. and has ])urchased and sold prop- 
erty ever since he located here. He now 
owns and operates a farm of one hiiiidrcd 
and twelve acres in the town of Hector. 
Wherever known he is held in high esteem, 
because of his reliability in business affairs 
and his, enterprise and determination. lie 
lias strict regard tor the ethics of profes- 
sional life, and has tiie confidence and good 
will not only of the public, but of the profes- 
sion as well. 

♦-•-♦ 

OSP.ORX S.MITIl. 

One of the most prominent and inlliicn- 
tial citizens of the town of I lector is the gen- 
tleman wliose n;\me iiitroiluces tliis review 
He is a worthy representative of its agri- 
cultural interests and has borne an imijor- 
tant part in public affairs for several years, 
^fr. Smith was born in I lector on the 1 ^tli 
of .\pril. 1S61. and comes of an old and hon- 
ored family of this county. His great- 
grandfather, Jonas Smith, was a native of 
Connecticut, whence he came to what is now 
Schuyler county. Xew York. alK)ut 1800, 
but it tlien formed a part of Tompkins 
county. lie purchased land in Seneca 
county, but afterward traded this for prop- 
erty in the town of Hector, wliere the fam- 
ily have since made their home. He mar- 
ried a Miss Perry, one of the early settlers of 
Reynoldsxille. and they became the parents 
of seven chiblren. namely: Stephen. James. 



riioni.is S.. .Nlinc-r. John W .. liaun.ih ami 
I-'leanor. 

()f this family. Thomas Smith, our sub- 
ject's grandfather, was born in i8o(). and 
was a life-long resident of Hector, where his 
death occurred in 1877. His occupation was 
that of farming. He married Klizabetb B. 
Coats, a daughter of Joseph and Jane ( Bel- 
lis ) Coats, and to them were born nine chil- 
dren: Beia C Julia .\nn. Jane. Joseph. 
Rleanor. Mary. llann;di. (iertrude ami 
.\lbert. 

Beta C. Smith, the oldest of this family, 
.md the father of our subject, was born in 
the town of Hector, January 2. 1829. and 
was educated in the early |)ublic schools of 
that locality. He was reared to farming, 
and has .dwa\s followed that occu|)ation 
with excejjtion of twehe winters when en- 
gaged in teaching school. On the _'7tb of 
October. 1837. he was imited in m;irriage to 
Aliss Elizabeth Xewton Osborn. a daughter 
of John \\ il.son Osborn and .\nna ( Hea- 
venor) Osborn. both natives of Xew Jersey, 
w litre thev were rearccl and m.'irried. .\lrs. 
Smith was born in Warren county, that 
state. I'ebruary 12. 1837. but was only ten 
months old when brought by her parents to 
Schuyler county, Xew York. By her mar- 
riage she has become the mother of three 
children, namely: Osborn; Burdick : and 
Sarah Maud, wife of Rev. LaMotte Stan- 
ley. I'ela C. Smith has long been an active 
and earnest member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal cluu'cb, and has been connected with 
its official board for twenty-five or thirty 
years. He voted for I'ranklin Pierce in 1852 
and for .\braham Lincoln in i860, but has 
generally affiliated with the Democracy. He 
held the ofiice of loan commissioner for nine 
vears ; was justice of the peace sixteen ye:u"s; 
and judge of sessions for three terms. He 



352 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



A\as ;ii)i)iiiiite(l l)y novenmr Hill to take the 
census of the town of I lector and fcjr twenty 
years lias filled the oftice of notary puhlic, 
in which capacity he is still servini^. It will 
"thus he seen he has taken quite a prominent 
part in local affairs, and his official duties 
have always heen discharged in a most capa- 
ble and satisfactory manner. 

During his bovhood and youth Osborn 
Smith attended the puhlic schools of his na- 
tive town, and after completinj^- his educa- 
tion, engatjed in teaching school in Hector, 
during the winter months for ten yairs. 
while through the summer season he devoted 
his time and energies to farming. Since 
then agricultural pursuits have claimed his 
entire attention with exception of the time 
devoted to official husiness. In connection 
with his farming o|)erations he acts as agent 
for a fertilizing manufacturing C(im])any, 
known as the .\merican .\griculture Chem- 
ical Company, which ho has represented in 
h.is locality for ahout ten years. 

In I'ehruary. i8<)9. ^Ir. Smith was 
elected justice of the |)eace and was ap- 
pointed to fill a xacaiicw and has now held 
that oflice for four ye:u's, serving "\ ith credit 
to himself and to the entire satisfaction of 
the general jjuhlic. lie has also heen clerk 
of the boaril of supervisors since 1901, and 
ch'iirman of the county Democratic commit- 
tee at the same time, thus holding two 
jjositions. Since casting his lirst presi- 
dential vole for drover Cleveland, in iS<S4, 
he has alwavs sui)])orted the Democratic 
ticket, and he is a recognized leader in the 
ranks of the i)arty in this locality. lie at- 
tended the Methodist ICpiscopal church, and 
a memher of Trumanshurg Lodge. \o. 157, 
F. & A. M.: and I'idelity Chapter, No. "^-j. 
R. .\. M., of 1 rumanslntrg. Pre-eminently 
l)uhlic-si)iriled and progressive, he gives his 



supp(jrt to all enterprises which he helievcs 
will prove of puhlic benefit and is regarded 
as one of the most valued and useful citi- 
zens of his conimunitv. 



CKORCE A. RIXCKR. 

\'aried and important have been the 
husiness interests cajjably directed by George 
Andrew Ringer. Extensive and resjionsi- 
l)le have been the duties which he has i)er- 
iorined. and because of a wide acquaintance 
and because he is classed among the repre- 
.sentative men of Schuyler county he well de- 
serves representation in this volume. Mr. 
!\inger was boni on the old family linmc- 
stejid. two miles from Ciencva. Xew York, 
hebruary 24, 1826, his parents being Will- 
iam and .Mice (Smith) Ringer. His father 
was a native of h^redericksburg. Maryland, 
horn August 2},. 1798. and the mother of 
1 'ur subject was born in Yorkshire, hjigland, 
-Xovember 16, 1802, coming to .\inerica 
when seven years of age. She acco^npanied 
her father, who located in Geneva. Xew 
^'ork, wliere he died in 1830. ller mother 
had passed away in England. .\ sister. Jane, 
also came to the Hnited States and settled 
near Dundee, Xew York. William Ringer 
was married in (iencva in i8_'_^, to Alice 
Smith. It was in the year 18,^,^ that he be- 
came a resident of ^'ates county, Xew York, 
settling near Dundee, where he lived until 
his death, on the 3d of .\ugmst, 1873. His 
wife ])assed ;ivvay January 4. |8()4. They 
•vere the parents of three children: George 
A.; John J., who died December _'. 1835: 
and Susan .\.. who was born July 10. 1830, 
.■:nd is now the wife of .\. I.ittell. 

(ieorge .\. Ringer was a little lail of 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



353 



eight suniniers wlicii tlie faniily removed 
from Cieneva to Haniiigtoii. ^'atcs county. 
New York, arriving on tlie ist of April, 
1S33. He was educated in a district sciiool 
there and in a high sciiiK>I at Dundee, wliere 
he pursued liis stu(hes for some time. He 
was afterward cmp!o\ed in the clothing 
trade for three years and on account of low 
prices he se\cred iiis connection willi the 
business and turned his attention to f;irniing" 
and teaming in Nates county, at Dundee. 
He carried on tiiat husiness until 1S46. and 
then until 1851 engaged in dri\ing a stage 
coach hetween Dundee and I'cnn \';ni. In 
the same period he was also connected with 
the livery husiness. ^^'hen five years had 
thus passed lie was elected a constahlc lor 
Yates county, and served for some years. 
In the meantime, from 1849 until 1851, he 
traveled in the New England states with a 
panorama and in 1849 he was also connected 
with the clothing husiness in Dundee. On 
Coming to W'atkins he took charge of a liv- 
ery stable of ("hiJJian Stoli. now deceased, 
conducting this until 1831. In that yeir lie 
was elected constable of the town of Starkey. 
Yates county. ,ser\ing until 1864, and dur- 
' ing this period he was also fleputy sheriff and 
crier of the courts of Yates county at I'enn 
Yan for several years. From 1854 to 1864 
he conducted a livery business at Dundee. 
In the year 1863 Mr. i^inger went to Wash- 
ington, where he was emjiloyed by John 
Si)icer, who was engaged by the go\ernment 
to secure horses for .service in the war and 
was thus employed for a year. On the ex- 
piration of that period he returned to Wat- 
kins. New York, where he was em])loyed 
to take charge of a pair of runaway horses. 
He also worked as a malster and six moutiis 
later he purchased a team and began the 
transfer business on his own ;icciiunl. In 



1864 during the .McCMelian campaign he was 
employed by (ieneral Magee to dri\e si.x 
horses used in hauling a wagon upon which 
was a boat, containing thirty-six girls to 
represent the thirty-six states of the Union, 
this wagon taking part in nearly all of the 
parades in this portion of the state. Mr. 
Ringer also engaged in teaming, owning 
many teams and his business was carried on 
witii success until 1870. when he was elected 
constable of the town of Reading. He has 
iilled this position continuously since with 
the exception of a period of one yeiir and 
still Jiolijs the office. No higher testimonial 
of his capability and faithfulness could be 
gi\en than the fact that he has long been 
Continued in the position. 

In 1861 .Mr. Ringer drove the first stage 
from Dundee by way of North Reading. 
Alia. T^-rone. W'eston, Bradford and Sonora 
lo Sa\ona. starting on the 1st of July, 1861. 
in i8r>4 he was appointed police of Watkins 
and served initil about 1892. In his official 
capacity he bore an nnportant part in bring- 
ing to justice the criminals of N'ates and 
Schuyler counties, being indefatigable in fer- 
reting out crime and prosecuting the crim- 
inals. In J<^^2 this section of the country 
became infested with a gang of thieves, so 
bold in their depreilations that residents 
were in constant fear of losing horses. .A 
deputy slierift' by the name of .Mexander 
went to Dundee and obtained the assistance 
of Mr. Ringer in an effort to break up the 
gang. Learning that a Mr. Thomi)son was 
the leader of the .gang, they got on his trail 
and trackcil him from Ovid to Seneca Falls 
and from there to Rome. New \'ork, where 
he had five horses and a lot of wagons that 
he had stolen near Lima, on a canal boat. 
There they arrc-ted him ,ind took him to 
Rochester, where he w.'is conxicled. About 



354 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



tlie same lime a ojreat Hood i)f counterfeit 
mDiiey liafi been jnit in circulation in this 
section and .Mr. Ringer Ijc^'an an investiga- 
tion to discover tlie source from \vhicli it 
came. Making a raid on tlie house occupied 
by Thompson's mother at Ginger Bread 
Corners, he found twelve hundred dollars in 
counterfeit bills partly made uj). He has l)een 
collector of schools from 1880. holding the 
position almost continuallx until HjOi. l""or 
three years he was in the employ of the 
Northern Central Railroail Company. For 
a similar period was witii the Seneca Lake 
Navigation Company under J. D. I'ayne. 
superintendent, and for aI)out twelve years 
he was agent for this company at W'atkins. 
Mr. Ringer is the owner of the stage route 
from Coopers IMains to Monterey and from 
Monterey to Walkins and now has the mails 
carried over these lines. He has at different 
times been the operator of twenty-fi\'e stage 
routes and on the first stage that e\er made 
the trip from Dundee to Penn Van, in 1846, 
Mr. Ringer was the driver. His business 
interests as indicated have been varied, im- 
portant and extensive and not only has he 
conducted his private affairs witli capability 
and with good results, but continuously has 
he served in offices of ])ub]ic trust, discharg- 
ing his duties with prom])tness. fidelity and^ 
to the satisfaction of his constituents. At 
the present time he has charge of nineteen 
houses in W'atkins. wliich he rents and is 
the owner of two residences in this village. 
He has owned thirteen different houses here, 
but has lived in f)nly two. 

On tlie 6th of February. 1851. Mr. 
Ringer was united in marriage to Miss 
Rhoda .N. Guthrie, a daughter of Joseph 
and Rlioda (Cole) fjuthrie. Five children 
have been born unto them: Clarence A.; 
Susie, the deceased wife r)f Bvron Stoll ; 



John Ci. : William; and Emma L.. the wife 
of I-'red D. Davis, a resident of Virginia. In 
iiis political \iews Mr. Ringer was first a 
Whig, casting his first presidential ballot 
for Zachary Taylor, in 1848. .\t one time 
he became identified with the Know Nothing 
party and upon the organization of the Re- 
jjublican party he joined its ranks and has 
smce been one of its stalwart supporters. He 
attends the Methodist Episcopal church and 
is one of the best known men in this ])ortion 
of New \'ork. ha\ing perhaps a wider ac- 
()uaintance than ."Imost any other resident of 
Schuyler county. He is familiar with its 
history, has aided in its dexelopment and 
progress and has at all times been interested 
in its welfare. Mr. Ringer is. indeed, well 
known in this portion of the Empire state, 
and his genial manner h.as made him popular 
with a 'arge circle of warm friends. 



WILLI. \M L. DURGEE. 

In an account of the agricultural inter- 
ests of Schuyler county \\'illiam Loraine 
Durgee well deserves mention. He was 
born in Havana, now Montour I'alls. in the 
vear 1842. and is a son of Smith Durgee, 
who was born in Cayuga county. New York, 
.April 3. 1806. When he had reached 
man's estate he wedded h-lizabeth Lee. who 
was born December 3. 1810. and they be- 
came the parents of three children, l-'meline 
L., who married Frank Gates, has three liv- 
ing children — Willie. Charlie and Elizabeth 
and one deceased. Ida. Her daughter Eliza- 
beth is the wife of Stejjhen S. Norris and re- 
sides in the town of Reading, two miles 
from Watkins. The other children of Smith 
Durgee are Frances. I.orainc and William 
Loraine. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



355 



In tlie common scliools our sul)jcct ac- 
quired liis education, continuing his studies 
until eighteen years of age. At that time lie 
entered upon his l)usiness career, working 
as a tanner and otnrier with liis tatlicr. 
They carried on tiie husiness for (itteen 
years. On tiie ex])iration of tlie period tliey 
purcliased a farm and followed agricultural 
pursuits. Mr. Durgcc still devotes his at- 
tention t(3 agricultural i^ursuits with good 
success, for he is enterprising and ])rogres- 
si\e in his methods and his lahors are hring- 
ing to him creditahle and gratifying success. 

In the year 1877 Mr. Durgee was unitetl 
in marriage to Miss Lucy Mosher. a daugh- 
ter of Oliver P. Mosher, who was born Xo- 
vcmber 14, 1828, in the town of Catlin, 
Chemung county, lie ac(juired a common- 
school education and at the age of eighteen 
left school in order to become a factor in the 
business world. On the 29th of January, 
1830, he marrie<l I'hoebe Sturdevant. who 
was born .Xovcmber 13, 1829, in the town 
of Catlin. Chenunig county. Five children 
graced this maninge : brank. Lucy. Del- 
phine, John antl Elizabeth. Frank Mosher 
now resides in Elniira, New \'ork, and mar- 
ried W'icey \'an (jonlen. Thev have two 
children : William and I'red. Delphine 
Mosher became the wife of Sanniel Kinibrdl 
and has one son. Earl. John married llattie 
Thomas, of Schuyler county. Flizabeth is 
the wife of Da\is Catlin and li\ cs in the t<j\\ n 
of H(jrseheads, Chennmg count}. 

At the time of their marriage .Mr. and 
Mrs. Durgee began their domestic life in the 
house which is still their home. It has been 
brightened by the presence of one daughter, 
Xeilie E.. who is still with her ])arcnts. in 
order to provide I'or his family Mr. Durgee 
has always carried on agricultural ])ursnits 
and is now renting a farm which is located 



on the hill just west of Montour F'alls. Since 
the time he left school he has labored earn- 
estly and energetically, and to-day is one of 
the best known farmers in his section of the 
countv. 



CHARLES D\^'. 



-Vature has been generous in her gifts to 
almost al! sections of the world. She lias af- 
forded (5p])ortiniities to the settlers either in 
agricultural, commercial or mining lines. 
t)nc of the leading industries of this section 
of Xew \ork, developed through the natural 
resources of the country, is the manufacture 
of salt, and with this work Mr. Day is con- 
nected. He is a native son of Italy, his birth 
having occurred in the town of Bacon, in that 
country, on the 19th of Xoveniber, 1872. 
i le therefore is but a young man. yet he has 
obtained a very great amouiU of work 
since coming to the new world. He is a son 
of Beyas Dav, who was likewise born in 
Italy, and was there united in marriage to 
Miss Mary Pratt, j'he mother is now de- 
ceased, having passed away in her native 
country on the 4th of July. 1881. In their 
familv were live children, namely: .\rchie, 
Thonias. 'I'ony, Charles and Libby. Of this 
'lumber Tony is now deceased. 

Charles Day spent his early youth in his 
native country, ruid under the sunn\' skies of 
Italy he was trained to habits of industry 
and ])erseverance. In .\pril. 1891. he sailetl 
for tlie new world. Fie had heard favorable 
reports concerning the ojiportunities afford- 
ed to young men in America, and resolved 
to test the truth of the.se. hoping that he 
might better his financial conditions here. 
On reaching the .\tlantic coast of the Cnited 
States he made his wav inland until he ar- 



356 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



rived at Watkins, New York, wlnere he is 
now making his home, being here engaged 
in labor work, in the mannfactnre of salt. 
Lie lias resided continnously in this place and 
a~ the years liave passed he has become well 
known, so that as a laborer he now has a 
good position. 

In 1894 Mr. Day was united in marriage 
to Mrs. Dorothy Griswold. wlio was born 
on the 2d of .April. 1876. in Prescott, Can- 
ada. She was a widow at the time of her 
marriage to our subject, her maiden name 
having been Dorothy Hitchcock. Her par- 
ents were Albert and Mary ( Notell ) Hitch- 
cock, and in their family were six children, 
as follows: Mary, W'dliam. Joseph. John, 
Dorothy and James. By the first marriage 
of Mrs. Day her home was ble.ssed with an 
interesting little daughter, Mamie, who was 
born in November, 1890. Mr. Day and his 
wife are communicants of the Catholic 
church, and in his political views he is a Re- 
publican. He is one of the leading men em- 
ployed at the salt works at Salt Point, on 
Seneca Lake, and has the entire confidence 
(if those nxer him, as well as his fellow work- 
men. 

* ' » 

\\1LLT.\M Sl'TlMIl'.X M ARTIX. 

William Sulphen Martin, a general 
f.irmer and wholesale and retail dealer in 
milk, is a son of Archer D. and Alinira 
(Sutphen) Martin. His paternal grand- 
father, William Martin, was one of the early 
settlers of Schuyler conntx. whose father 
was a native of Scotland and on coming to 
the new world took up his abode in this ])art 
of the state, .\fter arriving at years of ma- 
turity William Martin wedded Elizabeth 
Masker, who was born in this countrv. ;md 



ii; 1800 he settled on a farm one mile east 
of the present village of Burdett, where he 
cleared a large tract of land, spetiding most 
01 his days there. He served with the rank 
of (jnartermaster sergeant in tiie war oi 
1 81 2. and for many years held the office ol 
justice of the peace m his town. L'nto him 
and his wife were Ixirn the following named : 
.Archer; Salinda, the wife of John C. Alead; 
Ira, who married Ellen Sutphen; Delilah, 
who became the wife of James Brink: John, 
who married Jane Tears: Margaret, who be- 
came the wife of Oakley Bunn; and George, 
who married Clarissa Sayre. When 
Doctor Watkins came from New A'ork to 
colonize his large tract of land ;it the head of 
Seneca lake and to start what is now the 
village of Watkins. he left the farm in care 
of his eldest son and at the head of the lake 
built a large hotel, which he conducted for a 
number of years. He also ran two stage 
lines and carried the mail — one from the 
head of the lake to IClmira and the other to 
Ovid. After Dr. Watkins built what is now 
the Jefferson House. William Martin sold 
his h(3tel and returned to the farm. 

.\rcher Martin, the father of our sul)ject, 
was bom in the town of Hector (then a part 
01" Tom])kins countv ) in 1803 and thorough- 
out his business career carried on agricnl- 
tmal pursuits, owning a rich and arable tract 
of land which he placed under a high state 
of cultivation. He was united in marriage 
to Miss .\lmira Sutphen, whose father was 
also a soldier oi the war of 181 2, joining an 
infantry regiment. Mr. Alartin took his 
bride tn the honie be b.'id prepared for her 
and his entire married life was passed on one 
farm in the town of Hector. His death oc- 
ctn^red in 1893, and his wife, who was bom 
\])ril 20, 1809, passed away March 16, 
1872. This worthy couple were the pareiUs 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



357 



oi eleven children, namely : Avilla, burn 
February 15, 1829. was married in it^4y to 
Arantluis Scovell ; Elizabeth Ann, born De- 
cember ji, 1830, was married ni i<S6o to 
Charles Dewey; William Sutphen. bom No- 
vember 30, 1832, was married in 1859 to 
Abigail Davis; Amelia Ellen was Ixirn Jan- 
uary 18, 1836; Archer Deimer, burn De- 
cember 13, 1838, was married m 1870 to 
Sarah Eump; Oliver \\'.. born December 4, 
1841, was married in 1864 to Belle Miller; 
John P., Ixjrn September 26. 1844, was mar- 
ried in 1867 to Susan Burnham; Mariiuis, 
born Xuvember 17, 184O, was married in 
1S73 to Emma Burt; Reeve, born Septem- 
ber 18, 1849, was married in 1872 to 
Adeline Brown; Aanjn M., born February 
21, 1852, was married in 1880 to Cora 
Rogers; and Peter, born Fei)ruary 8, 1854, 
was married in 1875 to Ella Williams. 

William S. Martin, the subject of this 
review, was born in Burdett, November 30, 
1832, and the pul)!ic schools of the town of 
Hector provided him with the educati<jnal 
privileges which he enjoyed. On i)utting 
aside his text books he took up the occupa- 
tion to which he had been reared and has 
never followed any other pursuit than that 
of farming. On the 23d of l''ebruary, 1859, 
he was joined in wetUock to Miss Abigail 
Davis, a daughter of Darius and Lucy 
(Tubbs) Da\is. She was born in Chemung 
county, Xew York, and has become the 
mother of four children, l)ut Carrie May, 
born May 10, 18O0, died on the 3th of May, 
1877. A. J., born October j^, 1861, is a 
manufacturer of Watkins. Lulie, born No- 
vember 17, 1863, is the wife of Loell \V. 
Smith. Ainiie Lena. b(jrn l-"ebruary 2, 1871. 
is at home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Martin attend the Presby- 
terian church anil he gives his [)o!itical sup- 



port to the Democr.icy. His integrity 
stands as an uncjuestioned fact in his history. 
Endowed by nature with :,ound judgment 
and an accurate, discriminating mind, he has 
not feared that lalxjrious attention to busi- 
ness so necessary to achieve success, and this 
essential quality has ever been guided bv a 
sense of moral right which would tolerate 
the employment only of the means that would 
bear the most rigid examination and by a 
fairness of intention that has neither sought 
or recjuired disguise. 



O. S. LA DOW. 



O. S. La Dow, who is engaged in busi- 
ness as a tinner and iilumber in Watkins, 
was ])orn in the town of Niles, Cayuga coun- 
ty, on the 1 6th of June, 1848, and is a son 
«)♦' J. N. and Margaret (Prine) La Dow. 
The father was proprietor of a hotel and an 
enterprising business man. His birth oc- 
curred in the town of Cato, Cayuga county, 
and on leaving the Empire state he removed 
to Michigan, locating in Tekunsha, Calhoun 
ct)unty, about 1857. Sub.secjuently, how- 
ever, he returned to the ICmpire state and 
died in the year 1885. 

Mr. La Dow of this review was reared 
ill Miciiigan, where he actjuired a good edu- 
cation, attending the public schools and af- 
terward spending twu years as a student in 
Olivet College. In 18(17 he came to Wat- 
kins. where he began learning the tinner's 
trade under the direction of Lullier Bower, 
entering upon a contract whereby he was 
to receive three hundred and fifty dollars for 
his services during the lirst year, four hun- 
dred dollars for the second year and four 
hundred and fifty dollars for the third year. 
During this time Mr. I, a Dow Ihornughly 



358 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



mastered tlie business in principle and detail, 
iieconiing an expert wurknian in the line o.t 
his chosen pursuit. In 1874 he removed to 
Breesport, where he purchased a tin shop and 
was engaged in business for four years, but 
Hb trade there was not very flourishing he 
crime to Watkins in 1878 and here embarked 
in business as a tinner and plumber, his con- 
nection with the industrial interests of the 
town making him a leading factor in busi- 
ness circles. His trade has continually in- 
creased because of his expert workmanship 
and his trustworthy business methods, and 
be is now enjoying a patronage which brings 
to him a very gratifying income. 

Mr. La Dow was married on the 15th of 
January, 1873, '" W atkins, to Miss I-'rances 
Baldwin, of this place, a daughter of Henry 
J. and Mary J. (Pease) Baldwin. The lady 
was reared and educated in Watkins and is 
well known here, the circle of her friends 
being extensive. Mr. La Dow gives his 
political support to the Democracy and is 
now serving his fifth year as assessor of the 
corporation of Watkins. while from 1883 
until 1886 he was a trustee of the village and 
during his incumbency many marked im- 
provements were made, including the estab- 
lishment of the water works, the electric 
light system and the sewer system, the city 
owning all of these except the electric light 
system. 

In February. 1901, Mr. La Dow was 
elected justice of the peace, entering upon 
the duties of office on the ist of January of 
the following year, so that he is now the in- 
cumbent, and in the trial of cases which have 
been brought to him he has been found to 
base his opinions upon the equity of the law 
and his course has won uniform commenda- 
tion. Active in political circles he has served 
as a delegate to xarious c(>n\entions of his 



party and has put forth every effort in his 
])ower to promote the grow ih and insure the 
sixcess of the Democracy in Schuyler coun- 
ty . He belongs to Chequaga Tribe, Xo. 201, 
J. O. R. M., has filled all of its chairs and 
has represented his tribe in the grand lodge 
on three different occasions, while for seven 
years he has attended all of the great coun- 
cils. Soon after attaining his majority he 
became a member of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, but is not now actively as- 
sociated with the organization. He owns 
two residences in Watkins in addition to his 
business, and his property interests are the 
visible evidences of his life of thrift and in- 
dustry, while his history is proof of liie fact 
that success is not the result of any fortunate 
ciMubination of circumstances or of genius, 
but is the outcome of earnest purpose, strong 
determination and unfaltering induslrv. 



JOSEPH R. DUSEXBERRV. 

■% 

Joseph R. Dusenberry is the owner of 
one of the best homes on the hill in Watkins 
and is widely known as a successful agricul- 
turist and horticulturist. His fields yield 
good crops of grain, his orchards and vine- 
\;irds afford excellent supplies of fruit, 
wiiich. finding a ready sale upon the market, 
ic-turn to tlie owner a very desirable income. 
Mr. Dusenberry has made a close study of 
the work to which he gives his energies, and 
his opinions are largely regarded as authority 
iu matters jiertaining to the cultivation of 
fruit. lie also has broad, ])ractical experi- 
ence, which has resulted in making him one 
ot the prosperous residents of this portion of 
\cw ^'ork. 

Mr. Dusenberrv is a native of Rensselaer 



THE BlUGRAPlliLAL RELUKD 



359 



ci'imty, Xew \'urk, horn on tlie ^5th of 
April. 18^2. His parents were ImiocIi and 
Maggie (Rogers) Dusenherry. Ilic former 
was horn in Rensselaer county in the year 
1797 and after arriving at years of maturity 
was united in marriage to Miss Rogers, hy 
w lK)m he had five children : h'rancisco. 
( Icorge and Margaret, all now deceased : 
Joseph R., of* this review; and Chauncey. 
The last named resides in Towaiida. Penn- 
sylvania, and owns 3 nice farm on the hill 
back of the town. His home, howexer, is in 
the village, for at the present time he is li\ing 
a retired life. Francisco, the eldest brother, 
was a Baptist minister, widely known 
throughout Tompkins county, and lie dietl 
in Ithaca. 

Josepli R. Dusenherry pursued his edu- 
cation in the puljlic scIkjoIs until nineteen 
years of age. wlien lie began farming on his 
own account and tliroughoul iiis Inisiness 
career he has been identified witii this w ork. 
He owns a vineyard in Schuyler county and 
one of the best places on the hill at W'atkins. 
He not only makes a specialty of grapes, 
however, but raises all kinds of fruits and 
has a splendid bearing orchard. Under his 
supervision his farm has been kept under a 
high state of cultivation and im])rovement, 
being ef|uipped with all modern accessories 
for carrying on the work. 

Mr. DusenlDcrry was united in marriage 
on the 5th of June, 1845. '" ^'^^ town of Hec- 
tor, Xew York, to Miss Phebe Benson. 
They began their domestic life on the Bensun 
farm in the town of Hector, wlicre they re- 
mained for five years, after which they re- 
moved to a farm about two miles east of 
tlieir other home, in Hector. There they re- 
niained until 1866, in which year Mr. Dusen- 
herry purchased a farm on the west side of 
W'atkins, where he now lives. It has been 



his home continuously since, covering a 
period of more than thirty-six )ears, during 
which tiiue his earnest efforts, capable luan- 
agenient and effectixe supcrxisinn liave 
n.ade the place one of the nvjst valuable and 
attractive in this portitni of ;he county. 

Mr. Dusenberry's first wife died in 1865, 
and on tlie 12th of September, 1866, he mar- 
rietl Susan Ellis, a native of Hector and a 
daughter of James Ellis. Her death oc- 
curred on the 1st of July. 1901, and our sul)- 
ject's only child, Harriet, died at the age of 
three years. Mr. Du.senberry is one of the 
oldest settlers of Schuyler county and few 
men are held in as high regard. This is due 
not to any special prominence which he has 
attained in political affairs or t(j the success 
w hich he has achieved in business life but to 
his lionorable, u])rig]it character. His entire 
career has been permeated by his Christian 
faith and he has e\er li\ed in harmony with 
his professions as a memijer of the Method- 
ist church. His political support has been 
gi\en the Democracy and in matters of citi- 
zcnshi]) he is progressive ami enterprising. 



MILFORD MATTHEWS. 

Mil ford Matthews has passed the eighty- 
tiiird mile-stone on life's journey, and is one 
111 the oldest native sons of the town of Hec- 
liir. still living within its borders, and this 
\cnerable and hont)red citizen well deserves 
mention among the representati\e men of 
Schuyler county, lie was born Jaiuiary 24. 
i<Si9, and is a son of Amassa and Polly 
( PA-eretts) Matthews. In 1793 the father 
came tf) Schuyler county with his parents, 
.lud the grandfather, Amassa .Matthews, en- 
tered land froiu the government, securing 
an entire section of six hundred and fortv 



30O 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



acres. Tlie fatlier was a n.iiive of W'est- 
cliester county. Xew York. Ijoni about 1785, 
and was therefore a little lad of eight years 
when witli his parents lie came to Scliuyler 
county. Here he was reared amid the wild 
scenes of frontier life, for this district was 
then a pioneer region. He shru'ed with his 
family in the hardships and trials incide.it to 
the establishment of a pioneer home, but 
later he engaoed in farming on his own ac- 
count, Ijecoming one of the extensive agri- 
culturists of the communit}'. lie served his 
country in the war of 1812. enlisting from 
Seneca, now Sciniyler countx', and remain- 
ing with the army a few months. He mar- 
ried Polly Everetts. a native of Connecticut, 
and a daughter of Daniel Everetts, who was 
one of the heroes of the Revolutionary war. 
enlisting from Salisbury, Connecticut, and 
serving throughout tbe struggle which won 
inde])endence for the American colonies. 

Mr. .Matthews, oi this review, is one of 
the family of eleven children, being the sixth 
in order of birth. In the subscription 
schools he pursued his education and he 
aideil in clearing some land on which his 
father .settled. He still resides upon a part 
of the oltl home tract, which for more than 
a century has been in possession of the fam- 
ily and today he owns alxiut three hundreil 
acres of valualile land, most of which is de- 
voted to the raising of grain, but fruit is 
to some extent cultivated upon this farm, 
mid returns to the owner a good annual in- 
come. 

Mr. Matthews holds membershii) in the 
Methodist Episcopal church and his life has 
been in consistent harmony with its teach- 
ings and principles. ] le cast his first ])rcsi- 
dential vote for William Heiirv Harrison. 
He was not quite of age at that time, but 
his vote was not challenged and therefore 



he supported the hero of the battle of Tippe- 
canoe. J-'rom the organization of the Re- 
publican party he has been one of its stanch 
advocates and has held some minor offices in 
the townsliip. W'idely known throughout 
the county in which he has spent his entire 
life, respected as a leading and successful 
agriculturist, and honored by reason of his 
fidelity to duty, Mr. Matthews deserves to 
Ije enrolled among the early settlers and 
representative men of this localitv. 



LEVI M. GANO. 



The subject of this sketch is a resident 
01 W^atkins, Xew York, and one of the 
prominent and influential citizens of Schuy- 
ler county. His life has been largely de- 
voted to journalism, and while laboring to 
promote the interests of his paity and the 
prosperity of his village, he has done much 
to promote the standard of his profession, 
reaping incidentalh- a share of the rewards 
with which it not infrequently repays per- 
sistent and sagacious efiforts. 

Mr. Gano was born in Hunterdon 
county. Xew Jersey, a son of Philip and 
Anna (Stires) tiano. The father was of 
I'rench Huguenot extraction while the 
mother belonged to an old -Dutch family. 
At the age of live years our subject came 
with his parents to Schuyler county. Xew 
N'ork, the family locating in the town of 
Dix, where he was given and was cpiick to 
profit by such educational advantages as the 
county afforded. .\ part of his early life 
was passed under the instruction of that fa- 
mous old peilagogue. Squire John A. Gil- 
let, of Hector, whose school at Peach 
Orchard was known far and wide through- 
out western Xew ^'ork. Later he himself 




L. M. GANO 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



363 



became a teacher and was foi' a time the 
successful head of the W'alkins school. 
Alter this he studied law in the office of Ed- 
ward Quin, and, being subsequently admit- 
ted to the bar, practiced for a time in the 
state of Iowa. 

Returning to Xew York ^Ir. Gano 
founded, in i(S6o, the Oiean Times, now a 
prosperous daily at Olean, Cattaraugus 
county. Four years later at- Watkins, he 
established the Watkins Express, which he 
has since edited and pul)Iished and whicli 
has won a deservedly high rank among the 
weeklies of the state, ha\-ing been for forty 
years the most influential journal and lead- 
ing organ of its party in Schuyler county. 

During this time Mr. Gano has beai 
called upon to ser\-e his town ;uid county in 
various official capacities and has also filled 
a number of important appointive offices, 
commencing as clerk to the superintentlcnt 
of the Chanung canal. He has been school 
commissioner and supervisor of Dix ; canal 
collector at Olean ; assessor of internal rev- 
enue under Presidents Lincoln and John- 
son ; sergeant-at-arms for two years in the 
assembly; se\'enteen years a member of the 
village board of education ; twenty years 
postmaster at \\'atkins ; and finally dep- 
uty collector of customs in New York 
city during the administration of Presi- 
dent Harrison. In every public posi- 
tion held by him zeal, fidelity and efficiency 
have won him the esteem of his con- 
stituents and the high regard and con- 
fidence of his party friends. An aggres- 
sive and indomitable fighter, a far-seeing, 
level headed man, steadfastly loyal to 
party and principles, his conceded sa- 
gacity and conservative judgment in mat- 
ters political have gained the Express an 
enviable standing as one of the most re- 
liable and excellent publications of its class 
21 



in vvestern New York. In Masonry Mr. 
Gano has been master of Jefferson Lodge, 
l\ & A. M., district deputy grand master 
and junior grand warden of the grand 
lodge of the state. 



C, D. HILLERMAX. 

C. D. Ilillerin.in is the proprietor of the 
Three Oaks farm and is otherwise identified 
with tlie business interests of the town of 
Reading for he is also conducting a feed and 
saw mill. One of the native sons of this 
town, his birth occurred March 24, 1859, his 
parents being Gilbert S. and Mary (New- 
man) Plillemian. The family is of German 
descent and was founded in Connecticut at 
an early day. Later ancestors of our sub- 
ject removed to Orange county, New York, 
and from there his grandfather came to 
Schuyler county. 

Gilbert S. Hillerman, the lather, was 
born on the Lake road in the town of Read- 
ing, April 3, 1825, and became a farmer and 
miller. His wife was born in the same town 
in 1833 and was a daughter of Abijah New- 
man, who put in operation a water mill on 
Big Hollow creek at a very early day and 
later a cider mill on the home farm, and 
when Gilbert S. Hillerman became the owner 
of that farm he added a feed mill in 1878, 
while in 1884 a saw mill was also constructed 
upon the property. Gilbert S. Hillerman 
continued business there up to the time of 
his death, which was occasioned by the ex- 
plosion of the boiler in the mill in .\pril. 

1^95- 

C. D. Hillerman is the eldest in a family 
of six children and on the old home place his 
youth was passed, while in the district 
schools he obtained his elementary educa- 



364 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



tion, which was supplemented by study in 
the high scliool of Watkins for one year and 
in Starkey Seminary one term. In 1882 he 
went to Cliicago, lUinois, where he took a 
course in bookkeeping. .After liis return 
home in 1884, he joined his father in busi- 
ness and the relation was maintained until 
the latter's death. In 1892 they bought the 
farm of fifty-five acres, which was formerly 
known as the Culver property, but which 
Mr. Hillerman has named the Three Oaks 
farm. In 1893 our subject purchased his 
father's interest and in 1896 removed the 
mill to its present location, at which point he 
does grinding for the community and also 
engages in sawing lumber. 

On the 14th of October, 1902, Mr. Hil- 
lerman was united in marriage to Miss 
Elizabeth La Mont, a native of Troy, Brad- 
ford county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter 
of William and Lucy (Campbell) La Mont. 
The La Mont family came to this country 
from France, being founded here in 1755 by 
Cornelius La Mont, his father and three 
brothers who located in Greene county, 
New York. Cornelius La Mont served 
for two years as a soldier in the Rev- 
olutionary war and was buried in Cortland, 
New York. He was the great-grandfather 
of Mrs. Hillerman. Her grandfather, John 
La Mont, was born in 1798 and married 
Olive Pettit, who was born in 1801. They 
had nine children, namely : Charles, Hiram, 
Hezekiah, Lucy, Lydia, Watson, William, 
Elizaljeth and Darwin. William La Mont, 
the father of Mrs. Hillerman, was born in 
Lexington, Greene county. New York, No- 
vemljer 15, 1835, and became interested in 
n'lany different vocations, including milling, 
painting, carpentering and lumbering, being 
a natural mechanic. He married Lucy 
Campbell, a daughter of Carlton 11. and 



Naomi (Smith) Campbell, and to them were 
born three children : Fred C Aninia L. and 
Elizabeth. 

In his political views the father of our 
siibject was a Republican, prominent in the 
ranks of the party, and for two terms he 
held the office of road commissioner. Mr. 
Hillerman of this review is identified with 
the same party and for one term he ser^'ed 
ab justice of the peace, during which time 
he tried a number of cases. A member of 
the Methodist Episcopal church at Reading 
Center, he is serving as one of its trustees and 
takes a deep and abiding interest in its prog- 
ress and growth. From the time that his 
granilfather, William Hillerman, came from 
Orange county and settled upon the Lake 
road in the town of Reading, representatives 
of the family have been interested in the 
general improvement and upbuilding of this 
portion of the state, bearing their part in 
the work of development, and C. D. Hiller- 
man, like his father and grandfather, is 
known as a valued and representative man 
here. 



BENJAMIN PALMER. 

Through many years Benjamin Palmer 
ranked among the most valued and repre- 
sentative business men of Schuyler county. 
He was born in New City, Rockland county, 
New York, near Rockland lake, Noveml^er 
15, 1818, and was one of six children, com- 
jjrising three sons and three daughters. Far 
back into the early history of America can 
the ancestry of the family be traced. There 
were three brothers of the name who came to 
America from England — Joseph, John and 
Abraliam Palmer — and it is belived tliat the 
branch of the family to which our subject be- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



365 



longed was descended from Joseph Palmer, 
wlio settled near New City in Rnckland 
county, New York, prior to the Revolution- 
ary war. Jonathan Palmer, the father of 
our suhject, had brothers who ser\ed as 
patriots in the struggle for independence, 
while he was a soldier of the war of 1812, 
enlisting at Xew York city. He acted as one 
of the home guards for that city and after- 
ward received a pension in recognition of 
his services. He married Margaret Cole, 
who was one of the fifteen children of the 
famous Cole family of New York city and 
was a woman of great strength of character 
and admirable qualities. The Coles were an 
old and famous family in Holland and the 
founder of the American branch was one of 
the early Dutch settlers of New York city. 
To this family belongs the noted Domini 
David Cole, D. D., an eminent divine of 
Yonkers, New York, who is author of a 
biographical work tracing with accuracy the 
family lineage to early years of the sixteenth 
century. 

Iienjamin Palmer acquired his education 
in the schools of his native town and in the 
public schools of New York city, where his 
parents removed when he was a youth of 
thirteen years. When eighteen years of age 
he began learning the carriage maker's trade 
in the metropolis and afterward l)ecame the 
owner of a large manufacturing concern. 
As a wheelwright he was without a superior. 
Ii: 1840 he came to Monterey, Schuyler 
county, and erected a large carriage making 
plant, carrying on business along that line 
throughout his remaining days, his trade 
reaching large proportions because of his ex- 
cellent workmanship and his honorable deal- 
ing. As his hnancial resources increased he 
made judicious investments in real estate and 
was the owner of a large farm which he per- 



sonally superintended. He made an untarn- 
ished record and an unspotted reputation 
as a business man. In all places and under 
all circumstances he was loyal to truth, honor 
juul right, justly valuing his own self-respect 
as infinitely more preferable than wealth, 
fame and position. 

On the 8th of May, 1839, Mr. Palmer 
was united in marriage to Miss Caroline 
Bogert, a daughter of Henry Gilbert and 
Cornelia (Demarest) Bogert. Her father 
was for over forty years owner of a large 
marble and brown stone manufactory, in 
which at one time as many as three hundred 
men were employed, and he was quite a 
prominent man of the metropolis. Mrs. 
Palmer was bom in New York city, Febru- 
ary 7, 1820, and by her marripge became 
the mother of five children. Henry Bogert, 
the eldest, born April i, 1840, died while 
serving in the Civil war in March, 1863. 
Jonathan, born March 17, 1842, was a car- 
riage builder and died in December, 1863. 
Sarah Cornelia, born February 27, 1844, 
was educatetl in the public schools of New 
York city, graduating in the Morris Sinia 
school, where she first entered into the hon- 
orable profession of teaching. After her re- 
turn to Schuyler county she engaged in 
teaching here and for twenty-two years fol- 
lowed that profession, being identified with 
the public schools of New York city and 
Newark, New Jersey, a part of that time; 
principal of the Bradford Academy, Steuben 
county. New York ; associate principal of 
Dundee Academy in Yates county, New 
York; and one of the associate teachers of 
the academy in Watkins. Emma Louise, 
born September 3, 1846, became the wife of 
James Allen Baldwin, who for thirty years 
v.as confidential clerk for Gunthcr & Sons, 
furriers, of New York citv. She was noted 



366 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



for personal beauty and grace, and for a 
most amiable disposition and Christian qual- 
ities. Her death occurred January 3, 1893, 
Syrillus Huyler, born November 7, 1848, is 
n.entioned more fully below. 

Mr. Palmer held membership in the Odd 
Fellows Society of Monterey and was also 
a member of the Sons of Temperance, and 
was long- in office in those organizations, be- 
cause of his popularity with his brethren of 
those fraternities and because of the high re- 
gard which all entertained for him. He 
was reared in the faith of the Dutch Re- 
formed church, but later in life united with 
the Methodist Episcopal church at Monterey 
and was long devoted and zealous in his 
work in behalf of Christianity. Politically 
he was a Republican, never wavering in his 
allegiance to that party. He was a man of 
equitable disposition, never impatient, well 
educated, lo\ing and kind, and his sterling 
traits of character won the respect and love 
o: young and old, rich and poor. In those 
finer traits of character which combine to 
form that which we term friendship, which 
endear and attach man to man in bonds 
which nothing but the stain of dishonor can 
sever — in those qualities Benjamin Palmer 
was royally endowed. He died April 28, 
1877, at his Watkins home on Madison 
a\enue, sincerely mourned by all who had 
the honor of his acquaintance. 



SYRILLUS H. PALMER. 

Syrillus Huyler Palmer is an active 
factor in industrial circles in \\'atkins. where 
he is engaged in the manufacture and repair 
of wagons, and in the blacksmith business. 
He is a son of Benjamin and Caroline (Bo- 



gert) Palmer, and was born in the town of 
Orange. Sciiuyler county, Xovember 7, 
1848. His paternal grandfather, Jonathan 
Palmer, came from Xew Jersey to Xew 
York city and lived for a time in Rockland 
county, this stale. He arrived in Schuyler 
county about 1820, settling in the town of 
Orange, in the southeastern part of Sugar 
Hill, tie was a farmer by occupation and 
devoted h.is energies to agricultural pursuits, 
making his home here continuously until his 
death, at eighty-six years of age. 

In the district schools 'of his native town 
^Ir. Palmer of this review pursued his edu- 
cation. He learned the trade of a carriage- 
maker and blacksmith although he was 
reared upon his father's farm in the town of 
Orange. Becoming familiar with these lines 
of industrial activity he has carried on busi- 
ness in this way continuously since with the 
exception of one year, during which he fol- 
lowed the carpenter's trade. For the follow- 
ing fifteen years he was engaged in business 
with Mr. Goundrey, after which he spent 
three and one-half years in Cortland, Xew 
York. The next five years were spent in the 
west, being superintendent of a carriage 
manufactory in Denver. Colorado. At the 
expiration of that period Mr. Palmer re- 
turned to Xew York, and after spending a 
short time in \Vatkins. went to Gorham, On- 
tario county, where he entered into partner- 
ship with a Mr. Coon, carrying pn business 
at that point for a time. Subsecjuently. how- 
ever, he again came to Watkins, and pur- 
chased his present place of business, in which 
he has since Ijeen carrying on all kinds of 
blacksmithing and wagon-making. His 
plant is located at the head of First street on 
I'ranklin. and extends through to Madison 
avenue. He is an expert workman, thor- 
oughly understanding all of the great me- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



367 



chaiiical principles which inulerhe liis work, 
as well as all practical lahor connected with 
the construction of wat^uns and carriages, 
and of l)!acl<sniithing. IJccause of his capa- 
bility he has receivetl a liberal patronage, 
which is constantly growing, and his busi- 
ness is now an important one in industrial 
circles in Watkins. 

On the 4tii of July, iSAj, Mr. Paincr 
was united in marriage to Miss Adelia De 
Wilt, a ilaughter of George and Sophronia 
(.McDougal) DeWitt. After the death of 
l-.is first wife he wedded Elizabeth De Witt, 
her sister, who also passed away, atid he 
was again married, his third union being 
with Ella Hill, the widow of Mott Palmer, 
and a daughter of Nelson Hill. 

-Mr. Palmer, of this review, is a valued 
member of Stanley Lodge, No. 434, I. O. 
O. F. He also ijecame a member of Trin- 
ity Lodge, Xo. 23, A. O. U. \\'., of Denver, 
Colorado, and in these organizations he has 
held oHice. He attends the Baptist church 
and in his pijlitical views is independent, sup- 
jjorting the men and measures rather than 
the party. Proiuinent among the energetic, 
far-seeing and successful men of this portion 
of the En.pire state, Mr. Palmer is num- 
bered, and his life history most happily il- 
lustrates what can be (kjiie by faithful and 
continued elYort in carrying out an honest 
l)urpose. Integrity, activity and energy have 
been the crowning points of his success. 



JOHN HALL SWICK. 

John Hall Swick is a most extensive land 
owner in ihc town of Hector, but he has 
never allowed the accumulation of wealth 
to in any way warp his kindly nature. The 



story of his success may well serve as a 
source of inspiration and encouragement to 
others for he started out in life empty 
handed. He realized that determination, 
perseverance and honesty are imp(jrtant ele- 
ments in progress in the business world and 
updu these he has builded his success. He 
stands today strong in his honor and his 
good name as well as in his position and as 
one of the leading and prominent men of 
Schuyler county, he certainly deserves rep- 
resentation in this volume. 

Mr. Swick was Ixtrn in Seneca county, 
New York, December 13. 1816, and is a son 
of Tunis I. and Phebe (Hall) Swick. The 
former was bom in Virginia and during his 
infancy was taken by his parents to Seneca 
county. New York, the family settling there 
in the year 1790. His father has told a 
story of how some Indians visited this home, 
bringing with them a little pappoose fastened 
to a board. Going into the house they stood 
the board up against the side of the buibling 
and a hog, coming along, rooted up the 
board and tore the child to pieces. At tlie 
outbreak of the war of 181 2 Tunis I. Swick 
was drafted for service, but his father hired 
a substitute for him. After arriving at years 
of maturity he wedded Phebe Hall, a daugh- 
ter of Caleb Hall, who was one of the heroes 
of the Re\olutionary war, and was captured 
in Dutchess county while serving in the 
cause of independence. The famil\- lived or- 
iginally in Dutchess comity before removing 
to Schuyler county. lilisha Hall, an uncle 
of Mrs. Swick, was a soldier of the war of 
1812, and, being captured, was sent as a 
]n"isoncr of war to Canada, but later was re- 
leased. 

Jdliii IL'dl Swick began his education in 
a subscription school in ^'ates county, where 
bis father had rcm<i\c'd at an earlv dav. 



368 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



clearing a farm from the old I'ultcney tract 
of land near Keuka Lake. Tliere in an old 
log school house Mr. Swick pursued his 
studies during the winter months. He 
never went to school in the summer time ex- 
cept for one day, for his parents were poor 
and his services were needed upon the home 
farm when the work of clearing and culti- 
vating the land could be carried on. It was 
therefore only in the cold winter seasons that 
he was allowed the privileges of pursuing 
his studies. His training at farm labor, 
however, was not meager, and he assisted in 
clearing away the brush and preparing the 
fields for cultivation. He was thirteen years 
of age at the time of the removal of his 
father's family to the town of Hector, then 
Seneca county, afterward Tompkins, and 
now Schuyler county. New York. Although, 
he has li\ed thus successi\ely in three coun- 
ties he has resided contiiuiously for sixty- 
three years upon one hill — Hector Hill — 
and his home has always been within a half 
mile of his present place of residence. For 
twenty-eight years he has lived in the house 
in which he now abides. 

In September, 1838, Mr. Swick was 
united in marriage to Miss Annis Secoyd, a 
daughter of Joseph and T>etsey (Hausner) 
Secoyd. They became the parents of four 
chiklrcn : Delia C, now the deceased wife 
of Benjamin Fletcher; William, who has 
also passed away; Horace, who is living in 
the town of Hector; Schuyler, who died at 
the age of six years. The mother of these 
children was called to her final rest Septem- 
ber 9, 1855, and on the joth of June, 1856, 
IVlr. Swick was again married, his second 
union being with Susan Smith, a daughter 
of Daniel T. and Sally (Hall) Smith. Her 
f.'ither died February 20, 1877, and her 
mother on the 19th of May, 1875. By the 



second marriage of Mr. Swick there have 
been two cliildren born: Ida is the wife of 
Charles \'orhes, a resident of the town of 
Hector; and Carrie is the wife of DeWitt 
C. Swick, who li\es in the town of Hector, 
a half mile west of the old home place. 

Our subject now owns about five hun- 
dred acres of \'aluable land in the town of 
Hector, and also has sixty acres in Genesee 
county, Michigan, near Flint. He carries 
on general farming and also engages in the 
raising of fruit. He went in debt for his 
team when he located upon this hill in 1840, 
and since that time he has made all that he 
now possesses. He worked for his board and 
clothes until he \\as twenty-one years of age, 
but today he is numbered among the men of 
affluence in Schuyler county, and is the most 
extensive landowner of the town of Hector. 
\\ hat he has accomplished others may do, 
and his life record should serve to encourage 
and inspire young men who have to begin 
as be did. without capital. He worked hard. 
a])plicd himself closely to whatever he un- 
dertook, and through careful management, 
unremitting diligence and accurate business 
principles he was enal)led to steadily add to 
his possessions. What he has achieved is 
certainlv well merited and now in the even- 
ing of life he is surrounded by all the 
comforts and many of the lu.xuries which 
go to make life worth living. He has 
always enjoyed the best of health, which he 
considers of greater value than wealth. Mr. 
Sw ick has never applied to a bank for a loan, 
though at times be has l)orrowed money 
from his neighbors, and when asking as- 
sistance has never been refu.scd, as his hon- 
esty is proverbial and his word is considered 
.'IS good as bis bond. 

Mr, Swick cast his first vote in 1838 and 
since that time has alwavs been found at 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



369 



tlie polls at cacli election. His tlrst presiden- 
tial ballot was cast for William Henry Har- 
rison, in 1840, and he now supports the Re- 
publican party because he believes in its 
principles. He served for several years as 
overseer of the poor of Schuyler county, but 
has never been an actise politician or oflice 
seeker. 

Mr. Swick has lx;en called upon to 
mourn the loss of his second wife, who died 
January 6, 1899, and since that time two 
grandchildren, who are orphans, have kept 
house for him, these being the children of his 
son William. He can relate many interest- 
ing incidents of pioneer days when this part 
of the country was largely unimproved, 
deer and other wild animals roaming at will. 
Having other work to do, he ne\er engaged 
in hunting and the extermination of these 
animals can never be laid at his door. At 
one time while living in an old log house 
where the chinking had worked out, a large 
rattlesnake was found between the logs, and 
was killed by Mr. Swick's father. The up- 
right, honorable lite of our subject has 
gained for him the respect and admiration 
of all with whom he has been brought in 
contact, and he has a host of warm friends 
throughout the county. 



WINFIELD SCOTT SHERMAN. 

W'infield Scott Sherman is a wide- 
awake, enterprising and progressive farmer 
of Schuyler county, and is one of its native 
sons, for he was born in the town of Hector, 
Deceml)er 2, 1852. His father, Jerry Sher- 
man, was born in Newark, New York, on 
the 13th of October. 1807, and in 1825 be- 
came a resident of Hector, wiicre he fol- 



lowed wagon-making for twenty-fi\c )iai>. 
He was a good workman, and secured a 
profitable business, which l)rought to him a 
comfortable income which enabled him to 
live retired during his last years. He was 
united in marriage on the 28th of December, 
1832, to Miss Almira Cantield, who was 
born in the state of Connecticut, in 18 14. 
Their children were Diana, George, Edwin, 
Le Roy, Orson, James, Philo, Sarah and 
Winfield Scott. 

The last named i)ursued a common- 
school education and at the age of twenty 
IHit aside his text Ijooks in order to learn the 
more difficult lessons in the school of experi- 
ence. In early life he worked at the mason's 
trade and also followed carpentering. He 
was a gootl workman, thoroughly mastering 
the business and dispatching with ([uickness 
and accuracy the tasks entrusted to him. 
At the present time, however, he is engaged 
in farming, having, in 1885, purchased the 
farm upon which he now resides, with 
money left to him by his father. His place 
is located near Montour Falls and is a very 
good property, well improved with modern 
equipments and conveniences for carrying 
on farm work. Everything about his place 
is neat atid attractive in appearance, and a 
glance indicates to the passer-by the careful 
supervision of the enterprising owner. 

On the 5th of February, 1891, Mr. Sher- 
man was united in marriage to Miss Ella 
Miller. Her father, .\mbrose Miller, was 
born in the town of Dix, Schuyler county, 
in the year 1802, and acquired a common- 
school education. He put aside his text 
books at the age of sixteen years and 
throughout iiis business career carried on 
farming, meeting with creditable success in 
his undertakings. He was united in mar- 
riage witli Miss H;u"ricl Pierce and unto 



370 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



them were Ijorn six children, namely : Amos, 
Delia, Fanny, Mattie, David and Jennie, 
After the death of his first wife the father 
married Caroline Kimball, of Trumansburg;. 
Xew ^'ork, and they became the parents of 
eight children, as follows: Edward; Sarah, 
now deceased ; Ella ; Frederick ; John ; Mat- 
tie: Alonzo; and Adrian. Mr. Miller was 
killed by the cars at W'atkins. New York, on 
the 13th of June, iSq8. Mis widow still sur- 
vives him and is yet living in Montour 
Falls. 

At the time of their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Sherman began their domestic life in 
Havana (now Montour Falls), in the house 
where they are now living. They have two 
children, .\rtluir K. and Frances G., both 
of whom are with their parents. Mr. and 
Mrs. Sherman have a wide circle of friends 
in this locality, and their own home is noted 
for its hospitality. In bis iiolitical views 
Mr. Sherman is a Democrat, but has never 
sought or desired office, preferring to give 
his time and attention to his business afifairs 
in which he is meeting with very creditable 
success. 



CHARLES DAXVERS GILE. 

Charles Danvers Gilc. now (lcce:ise<l. 
was born in Hanover, Xew Hami).sliire, in 
the year 1829. His parents were both na- 
tives of England. Emigrating to America 
they resided for .some years in the Empire 
state. Subsequently, however, they removed 
to Lincoln, Xebraska, where their remain- 
ing days were passed. The subject of this 
review at the usual age entered the public 
schools, there pursuing bis education until 
he reached the age of nineteen, when he put 
aside his text books and began earning his 



own living. Entering the railroad service 
he there won promotion because of his faith- 
fulness and capability and becoming a con- 
ductor he .ser\ed continuously in that ca- 
pacity until his demise. He was one of the 
trusted and reliable employes of the com- 
pany, always courteous, obliging, respectful 
and kindly. Tho.se qualities made him a fav- 
orite ^\ith the regular patrons of the road, 
and gained for him the confidence and good 
will of those whom he served. 

Mr. Gile was imited in marriage to Miss 
Margaret .\nn W'ier, the wedding Ijeing 
celebrated December 16, 1852. The lady 
was born in Havana, now Montour ]""alls, 
January 5, 1830. Her father, .Mexander T. 
\\ ier. was born in the year 1803, and died 
in 1865, while his wife, who bore the maiden 
name of Christine Swick, was boni in Xew 
Jersey, in 1808, and, long surviving her 
husband, passed away in ]8S6. At the time 
of their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Gile re- 
moved to Connecticut, where they boarded 
for four years. On the expiration of that 
period they went to St. Louis. Missouri, 
where they remained for four years, .\gain 
a change in residence occurred and they lo- 
cated in Alobile, .Alabama, but after se\cn 
years they returned to St. Louis. On again 
leaving that city they went to Louisville, 
Kentuck}-, where they remained for two 
years. Their next home was in Detroit, 
Michigan, where they also spent two years 
and later they became residents of the great 
metropolis of the west, Chicago. Illinois. 
On the 1st of .\pril. 1875. they went to 
b'lorida, living there for three years, and 
then again they became residents of St. 
Louis, which remained their home for an- 
other three years. At the end of that time 
they returned to ]\[ontour I'alls to live with 
Mrs. (iilc's mother. Throughout his busi- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



371 



ness career Mr. Gile had followed railroad- 
ing in the various places in \vliich lie had 
lived. He died in the year 1881, and his 
loss was deeply mourned by many friends, 
for he had won the regard and respect of 
iiis fellow men wherever he had been lo- 
cated. Mrs. (iile inherited iier father's prop- 
erty, being an only chikl. She now has a 
pleasant home in Montour Falls, where she 
is comfortably situated and is a most esti- 
mable ladv. 



PHINEAS CATLI^'. 

The Catiin family is one tiiat enjoys a 
venerable anticpiity and a conspicuous place 
in the history of the old world. From an 
ancient document belonging to the family 
we quote : "The family of Catiin has been 
seated at Xewington. near Rochester, in ihe 
county of Kent, Fngland, ever since the 
Norman conquest. Reginald de Catlyne, 
who was one of the followers of William the 
Conqueror, is mentioned in 'Doomsday 
Book' as possessing two Knight's fees of 
land at the time of his successor in the 
county of Kent." I'nmi the same genealog)' 
of the family above referred to we subjoin 
the following from a long and interesting 
record, since the arrival of the first of the 
Catlins in .\mcrica. in 1643. Theodore Cat- 
iin, son of John, liorn Xox'cmber 12, 1738, 
married Mary Goodwin; I'liineas, born 
October 2>. 1760, settled in Tioga county; 
Israel, Inirn Sei)teniber 15, 1762, settled in 
Seneca county; Margaret, l)orn November 
16, 1764. died young; Theodore was born 
September 19. 1770: Abel was born March 
2. 1776; Clarissa, bom in 1778, married 
William Cumiingham, and married second 
lime George Cfryell ; .\nna inarried F.. S. 



Uinman; Horace died in Canada; Mary 
married Gurdon Grannis. 

Phineas Catiin, son of Theodore, born 
October 22, 1760, married Sally Ross, and 
had the following children ; Brant, born 
April 24, 1789, married Margaret Bennett, 
and died in 1819. I'hineas. born January 30, 
1795, married first Hannah Lee, and second 
Deborah Kimball. Theodorus, born Decem- 
ber T2. 1796, married first Nancy Haring, 
and second Laura Haring. Sarah, born July 
12, 1800, married Dr. Jones, and died in 
1825. Mary, born December 14, 1803, mar- 
ried John Crawford. Luc3% born Deceml)er 
14, 1807, married Hiram W. Jackson. 

Phineas Catiin, son of Phineas, born 
January 30, 1795, married first ILinnah 
Lee, and second Mrs. Deborah Kimball. 
His children were: Ralph Lee, born Jan- 
uary ~ "815. Carolina S., liorn March 26, 
1816. r.iarried John MitcJiell, Jr., and sec- 
ond Barnabus Miller. I'rsula, lx)rn Feb- 
ruary 25, 1823, married A. Ci. Campbell. 
Cornelia B. was born July 9, 1828. Lucy 
Louisa, born February 26, 1833, married 
Thomas C. Campbell. Francis M., l)orn 
April 24, 1835, died young. Henry B., born 
October 5, 1837, married Carrie B. Close. 

Judge Phineas Catiin, the fatiier of the 
gentleman whose name heads tliis bi- 
ography, was one of the pioneers of tiie old 
town of Catharine, iiaving settled in tlial 
])art of the town now included in Montour 
in 1792. He was the first supervisor of 
Catharine, having been elected to tiiat office 
.'.t the first town meeting, in 1798, and for 
clexen years consecutively therejifter. He 
was also several years clerk of the town, and 
for a long period one of its justices of the 
])eace. Prior to the organization of Che- 
mung county, he was elected first judge of 
old Tioga, and served in that, as in all other 



372 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



positions, with eminent success, and to the 
entire satisfaction of all concerned. At the 
age of si.xteen years he enhsted in the Revo- 
lutionary amiy and served seven years. He 
died January 30, 1827, in the si.xty-se\'enth 
year of his age, and was very sincerely la- 
mented as a useful citizen, a good neighbor 
and a true friend. 

As will be seen by reference to the gen- 
ealogy of the family, as above given, Phin- 
eas Catlin, son of he whom we have just 
noticed, was torn January 30, 1795. He 
was brought up amid the scenes incident to 
pioneer life, having been born on the old 
homestead in what is now Montour. He at- 
tended the district school taught by Anthony 
Erodrick, wiiere he acquired all the book 
knowledge iie possessed, to which he 
added a long and successful business career. 
For several years he was to\\n clerk of Cath- 
arine, and also for some time supervisor. In 
1824 he moved to Odessa, and resided there 
until his death. On the 3d of February, 
1814, he married Hannah, daughter of Is- 
rael Lee, witii whom he lived until his 
death, March 2, 1867, a period of fifty-three 
years. They raised a very worthy family, 
who, like their progenitors, for many gener- 
ations back, by their lives antl characters, 
are doing honor to their exhalted ancestry. 
Prominent among the sons of Phineas Cat- 
lin is Henry B., at one time sheriff of this 
county. In tlie days of our trouble with 
Great Britain, in 1812-1814, Mr. Catlin be- 
longed to a regiment of horse in the state 
militia, raised at Elmira, and at the burning 
of Buffalo his regiment was called to arms, 
the enemy evacuated the city on the lake 
before the valiant Elmira regiment could 
get farther than Dansville, November 14, 
1813. Mr. Catlin, evidently realizing the 
Lrulli of the scriptural injunction, "It is 



not good for man to be alone." married 
Deborah, widow of Henry Kimball. She 
was the daughter of John Kimball, a pioneer 
raid prominent citizen of the town of Catlin, 
Chemung county. 

In a general summary of the character 
of Mr. Catlin, dispensing with all of an 
eulogistic nature, we can say that he did as 
much as any one living man for the mater- 
ial improvement of the town of which he 
was an honored citizen; that in his life and 
labors he has evinced a desire to accomplish 
what he could for the general welfare of the 
community at large; that all of his dealings 
with his feliow men have Ijeen honorable and 
just; that m his domestic relations he has 
been the fond and affectionate husband and 
parent, and in his public life an eminently 
successful and useful member of society. 



HENRY BRANT CATLIN. 

Henry Brant Catlin, who is now living 
retired in Watkins, was born in Odessa, 
Schuyler county, on the 5th of October, 
1837, a son of Phineas and Hannah (Lee) 
Catlin. At the usual age he entered the pub- 
lic schools and pursued his education until 
he had acquired a good knowledge of the 
!)ranches of English learning, which lit 
one for life's practical duties. After 
putting aside his text lx)oks he secured 
a clerkship in a drygoods store in Mon- 
tour l*'alls, working for A. G. & J. 
Campbell, with whom he remained for 
al)out two years. He si>ent the next six 
months at home caring for an invalid sister 
and then went to Ovid, Seneca county, where 
he was engaged in clerking for about a year. 
On the expiration of that period he became 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



373- 



a resident of St. Paul. Minnesota, where he 
was located for eigliteen months as a clerk 
it' a bank. Returning thence to Schuyler 
county. Mr. Callin settled on the home farm 
and for eighteen years continuously engaged 
in agricultural pursuits, placing his land un- 
der a high state of cultivation and making 
many improvements thereon. At length he 
was called from the quiet of the farm to pub- 
he ofifice, having in the fall of 1878 been 
elected sheriff of Schuyler county, New 
York. He then removed to Watkins and en- 
tered upon the duties of the office, which he 
discharged faithfully for one term, the pres- 
ent sheriff of the county acting as his deputy 
during that period. At length he retired 
from office as he had entered it — with the 
confidence and good will of the public. He 
then went to Odessa, where he was engaged 
in the milling business, which he carried on 
for about eighteen months, when he once 
more took up his abode in W^itkins, where he 
has since resided. Here he turned his atten- 
tion to the liquor business, which he carried 
on until 1897, when he became ill, and since 
that time has been unable to resume work. 

Mr. Catlin is a member of Alyrtle Lodge, 
No. 131, F. & A. M., of Montour Falls. 
His political support is given the Republican 
party, he having continuc^isly voted its 
ticket since casting his first presidential bal- 
lot for Abraham Lincoln. His fellow 
townsmen, recognizing his worth and abil- 
ity, have several times called him to public 
office. He served as justice of the peace and 
as town clerk of the town of Catharine for 
many years, acting in that office previous to 
his incumbency as sheriff. 

On the 13th of June, i860, Mr. Catlin 
was joined in wedlock to Miss Carrie C. 
Close, a native of Pennsylvania. They have 
many friends in Watkins. and the hospitality 



of the best homes is extended to them. In 
public oflice and in private life Mr. Catlin 
has ciimmanded the respect of all with whom 
he has come in contact, and over the record 
of his oflicial career as well as of his business 
relations, there falls no shadow of wrong. 



MRS. ELIZABETH MAHONEY. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Mahoney owns and occu- 
pies a pleasant home in Watkins, where she 
has lived lor twenty years. She is a native 
of the Emerald isle, her birth occurring in 
County Kerrj' on the 21st of August, 1833, 
and her parents were also natives of Ireland. 
Her educational pri\ileges were very 
meager, but she li.id ami)le training in the 
duties of the household. In the year 1876 
she gave her hand in marriage to Patrick 
Mahoney, who was born in County Clare, 
Ireland. Their union was blessed with 
seven children. John, the eldest, is now 
living in Watkins, where he is manager of 
the opera house, and where, he is known as 
an enterprising and popular man, having a 
host of warm friends. Maria resides at 
home and is employed in the hotel in Wat- 
kins. Patrick is now deceased, having died 
of heart trouble. Elizabeth is the ne.xt of 
the family. Ellen is living in the sanitar- 
ium, and is held in the highest regard. 
Thomas makes his home with his mother 
and does general work. Flora, who is now 
fourteen years of age, is yet in school. 

It was in the year 1852 that Mr. and Mrs. 
Mahoney left their native country and 
crossed the Atlantic to America. They be- 
came residents of Schuyler county in 1880, 
and Mrs. Mahoney has since lived here. Her 
husband died May i, 1887. in the faith of 



374 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



the Catliolic church, of which she and her 
children are Hkevvise communicants. She 
lias a pretty home in Watkins wliich slie has 
owned and occupied for twenty years. Be- 
ing well known in the town, she has many 
warm friends whose high regard she has 
gained by reason of her upright lite and ex- 
cellent traits of character. 



JAMES EDWIN BIRDSALL. 

James Edwin Birdsall, now deceased, 
was for a number of years a worthy citizen 
of Schuyler county and certainly his mem- 
ory deserves to be perpetuated on the pages' 
of its history. He was a son of George W. 
Birdsall, and was born in the city of Albany, 
New York. His early education was ac- 
quired in the public schools there and after- 
ward he pursued a college course. .\t the 
age of nineteen he entered the Taylor Malt 
House at Albany, where he became a practi- 
cal malster, and throughout his entire busi- 
ness career carried on work along that line. 

When about thirty-two years of age. Mr. 
Birdsall was united in marriage to Melvina 
Amanda Newell, a daughter of Banister 
Cracken and Nancy Agnes (Booth) Newell. 
Mrs. Birdsall was born in Rochester, New 
York, June 2, 1848. Her father was a na- 
tive of Scotland and when a young man 
crossed the Atlantic to America, settling in 
Bangor, Maine, where he was reared. Bv 
trade he was a millwright and always car- 
ried on that pursuit in order to i)rovide for 
his family. Removing to Monroe county. 
New York, he was there married to Miss 
Booth, a daughter of Abijah Judson Booth. 
Mr. and Mrs. Newell became the parents of 
seven children: Harriet Frances, now de- 



ceased ; William Henry, who is living in 
Lawton, Michigan ; Charles Banister, who 
has also passed away ; Sarah Jane, deceased ; 
Mrs. Birdsall ; Marietta and Anna Maria, 
the two latter deceased. 

When Mr. Birdsall came to Watkins he 
was employed on a salary for five years, 
working at his trade. He then entered into 
l)Hrtnership with I""rederick Davis m the malt 
business and they continued together until 
1869, when Mr. Birdsall removed to Erie, 
Pennsylvania. There he again engaged in the 
same business, making his home at that 
place for six years. On the expiration of 
that period he returned to Watkins. where 
he afterward spent the 'rummer months. 
His death occurred here on the 13th of No- 
vember, 1876. He was a member of the Odd 
I'ellows Society, having been initiated here 
into the order in Watkins lodge. In poli- 
tics he was an earnest Republican, interested 
in the success and growth of his party, yet 
he never sought office. He was a communi- 
cant of the Episcopal church and was a man 
w hom to know was to respect and honor l)e- 
csu.se of his upright life and his fidelity to 
the principles of a trustworthy manhood. 



WILLIAM BUSIINLLL ELY. 

No history of Schuyler county would be 
complete without the mention of William 
lUishnell Ely, who has spent his entire life 
in this portion of the state and is an honored 
and resi^ected citizen. He has taken a deep 
interest in many measures pertaining to the 
general good and has given his hearty co- 
operation to all movements for the public 
benefit. 

He was born in the town of Hector, IMay 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



37S 



8, 1S21, and is a son of Augustus and Olive 
(Scovill) Ely. His paternal grandfather, 
Richard Ely, settled here in 1795, when this 
was yet a frontier region, much of the land 
being still unclaimed, while the work of 
progress and improvement had scarcely beai 
begun. He secured large tracts of land, be- 
coming one of the extensive property hold- 
ers of the locality and here he lived until his 
death, an honored pioneer, who bore an im- 
portant part in laying the foundation for the 
present prosperity and progress of his local- 
ity. The maternal grandfather of our sub- 
ject was Timothy Scovill and he married 
Chloe Kelsey. He served. a 3 a soldier of the 
Revolutionary war, valiantly aiding in the 
cause for indepentlence. His father was 
drafted for service, but as the elder man was 
needed at home to carry on the work of the 
farm and to provide for his family, the son 
took his place, going as a substitute to the 
front when but seventeen years of age. He 
entered the service from Connecticut, where 
the family originally lived and was in the 
army for two years. 

Augustus Ely, the father of our subject, 
was a soldier of the war of 181 2, enlisting 
from Schuyler county. New York, but after 
serving for a short time he was taken ill and 
was brought home. Prominent in public af- 
fairs he was a recognized loader in thought 
and action in his locality and was frequently 
called to public office, where he discharged 
his duties with promptness and fidelity. Pie 
served as overseer of highways and was also 
overseer of the poor for many years. He. 
likewise filled the position of road commis- 
sioner and was one of the board that laid 
the road out through the woods from Hector 
Falls. Always a student of the political 
issues and questions of the day, he was en- 
abled to support his position by intelligent 



argument. Public spirited and progressive, 
he gave his support to every measure that he 
lielievetl would prove of benefit to the com- 
munity. He died September 28, 1870. at 
the advanced age of eighty-four years, his 
birth having occurred on the i6th of April, 
17S6. He had cuntinucil tiie wurk of prog- 
ress and ujibuilding wliich had been begun 
by his father in pioneer days and as a valued 
citizen he commanded the respect and confi- 
dence of all who knew him. In his family 
were the following children: Olive Maria, 
Oliver Comstock, Philo Scovill, Polly Ann, 
William Bushnell, Chloe Scovill, Lydia 
Margaret, Harriet anfl Mary. Of this fam- 
ily Olive Maria, the eldest, is now living, 
making her home with the subject of this re- 
view. She was born August 8, 1813, and 
is therefore almost ninety years of age. 
Chloe S. is the wife of David liillerman, of 
Watkins, and Mary, who became Mrs. 
Henry S. Hudson, is living in Cortland, 
New York. The others, with the exception 
of the subject of this review, have all passed 
away. 

William B. Ely, whose name introduces 
this record, was educated in the early sub- 
scription schools near his boyhood home and 
later he turned his attention lo farming, 
which he has always followed in the town of 
Hector. He owns a good farm of one hun- 
dred and twenty-four acres devoted to grain 
and fruit. His marked industr\-, enterprise 
and diligence have been important elements 
in his success, making him one of the leading 
agriculturists of his comniunity. 

On the 22d of December, 1847, he was 
united in marriage to Miss .Mmira Wood- 
ford, a daughter of James and Urana (Rob- 
inson) W'oodford. Her mother was an 
aunt of Governor Lucius Robinson, now de- 
ceased, of Elmira, New York. Unto Mr. 



376 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



and Airs. Ely were born four chiklren : 
Charles, a resident o£ Kansas; William 
Cheaver, who is living in Albany, New 
York ; George W'oodford, who resides upon 
the old home farm with his father, and has 
charge of a portion of the land; and Frora 
Anale, the wife of Judson D. Mallory, who 
is a resident of the town of Hector. The 
mother of these children died August 18, 
1884. 

Mr. Ely was again married on the ist of 
December, 1885, his second imion being with 
Amanda E. Durland, a daughter of I'eter 
Durland and granddaughter of Robert Dur- 
hmd. who came to this county from Xew 
Jersey in 18 13 and settled on the farm where 
Oliver Budd now lives, making it his home 
until his death in 1847. Peter Durland grew 
to manhood in the town of Hector and was 
educated in the schools of that locality. He 
became a successful and was one of the lead- 
ing citizens of his community. Politically 
he was an active worker in the Democratic 
party. He died in 1859. In his family were 
five children who grew to man and woman- 
hood, but Mrs. Ely is the only one now liv- 
ing. Peter H., die eldest son, served a short 
time in the Civil war and held the rank of 
captain. Airs. Ely was the next of the fam- 
ily and was followed by Robert C. .Albert 
O. was a first lieutenant in Company I, 
Twenty-third New York Volunteer In- 
fantry. Edgar died when a young man. 

Mr. Ely exercises his right of franchise 
in support of the men and measures of the 
Republican party. He has served as over- 
seer of the highways, also as excise commis- 
sioner and was supervisor of his town in 
1864. His first vote was cast for Plenry 
Clay in 1844. and he continued an advocate 
of the Whig party until its dissolution, when 
he joined the ranks of the new Republican 



party. A prominent and inlluential member 
01' the Presbyterian church, he has served as 
clerk of its board of trustees for more than 
a half century, having been elected to the 
office in 1847. He was also elected an elder 
01 the church in 1857 and in the same year 
he was chosen clerk of the sessions and has 
since held all of these positions. All speak 
oi' Mr. Ely as an honorable man, one whose 
word is as good as his bond and whose ex- 
ample is well worthy of emulation. 



JAMES BEAHAN. 

James Beahan was born on the farm 
where he now Ii\es, December 8, 1826. His 
father, Thomas Beahan, was a native of 
County Kildare, Ireland, lx)rn March 12, 
1798, and after attaining to man's estate 
crossed the Atlantic to America, being the 
second of the family to seek a home in the 
new world, his brother Mathew having pre- 
viously arrived in the United States. They 
did not at once come to Schuyler county but 
afterward located here, having in the mean- 
time married sisters in Seneca county, who 
were born in the town of Lodi. Thomas 
Beahan wedded Florence Faussett and on 
removing to Schuyler county located on the 
farm which is now the home of our subject 
and which was deeded to Mr. Beahan by his 
father-in-law, George Faussett. There he 
spent the remainder of his days, rearing his 
family and carrying on agricultural pursuits. 
Six of the children reached mature years. 
Mary Ann, who became the wife of Peter 
McCaul, died in Watkins, leaving six chil- 
dren. James is the second in order of birth. 
Fannie became the wife of Charles O'Xcil 
and died leaving a son, Hugh, who was killed 



f 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



377 



ill the mines of Colorado while trying to save 
the lives of others in a mine explosion. 
Esther is the widow of Ilngh Carney. 
George and Elizabeth were twins and the 
latter is now deceased, while the former, who 
was married in Michigan- to Jamie Barnett, 
is now engaged in the grain business at Dii- 
rand, that state. Martha, another member 
of the family, is also deceased. The lather 
was a man of good education, possessing 
splendid ability as a penman, his hand writ- 
ing looking like copper plate work. He was 
also an excellent grammarian and mathema- 
tician and his scholarly attainments and 
ready command of the English language 
made him a fluent writer. He gave his polit- 
ical support to the Democracy but never 
sought or desired office, and, having been 
reared in the Catholic church, he died in that 
faith in 1849. 

James Beahan lived upon the home farm 
during the period of his youth and as his fa- 
ther was in ill health, largely assisted in the 
labor of field and meadow, his education be- 
ing pursued through the winter months in 
the country schools of the neighborhood; 
He remained upon the home farm until his 
father's death and for eight years thereafter 
he continued to manage the estate, which was 
then divided. He and his mother adminis- 
tered the estate, having to go to Bath, Steu- 
ben county, for this part of Schuyler county 
was then a part of Steuben. 

On Christmas Day of 1852, in Elmira, 
Mr. Beahan was united in marriage to Miss 
Harriet Grisvvold, who was born and reared 
in the town of Dix, a daughter of Squire and 
Temperance (McDowell) Griswold. She 
was born October 3, 1831, and passed away 
April 2, 1896, when sixty-four years of age. 
There were five children by that marriage. 
Wiliard, who was born January 15, 1854, 



married Bessie DeVVitt and is now a division 
engineer on the Chicago & Northwestern 
Railroad, living in Winona, Minnesota. He 
is a graduate of Cornell University and 
spent about a year in South America ai- 
gaged in the construction of railroads. He 
crossed tlie i\.ndes from Chili to the .Vtlantic 
coast, afterward sailed from Buenos .-Xyres 
to Bologne, France, thence went to Paris, 
London, Scotland and Ireland, successively, 
\isiting in the last named country the birth 
place of his grandfather. He has located 
over fourteen hundred miles of railroad in 
tlie southwestern part of the United States, 
probably more than any other man of his 
age in this country. His wife was also a 
graduate of Cornell University, and it was 
V. iiile in college that they became acquainted. 
Tiiey had one son, James, who is the only 
grandson of our subject. Albert L., a resi- 
dent of Canandaigua, New York, is a grad- 
uate of the Bellevue Medical College, also 
has taken post-graduate work, pursuing two 
such courses in New York and one in Phila- 
delphia, studying under Dr. Joseph Price, 
the great abdominal surgepn. He is now 
practicing his profession with success in 
Canandaigua, where he married Theodora 
Hopkins. In that place he has a hospital, 
containing forty-five rooms, and he is re- 
garded one of the most eminent members of 
the profession in his part of the state. Ed- 
v.ard, born December 15, 1858, died May 3, 
1866. Harry E., born January 13, 1862, 
was forced to leave school on account of his 
health and has since Ijeen engaged in various 
occupations. For five or six years he con- 
ducted a grocery store in Watkins and then 
became a traveling salesman. His wife bore 
the maiden name of Ida Swarthout and was 
a resident of Yates county. George, born 
May 24, 1864, died May 8. 1865. In addi- 



378 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



tion to rearing his own children ^Ir. Beahan 
brought to his home a girl. May Totman, 
who was then nine years of age. After the 
death of his wife he and the adopted girl 
carried on the farm. She is now the wife of 
Arthur N. Goltry, who has a good commer- 
cial education and is now carrying on the 
farm of his wife's foster-father. 

Of his original place Mr. Beahan still 
has ninety-four acres of rich land, on which 
he has made excellent improvements. The 
fields are under a high state of cultivation 
and everything about his farm is neat and 
tlirifty in appearance, indicative of the pro- 
gressive, practical spirit of the owner. In 
his political affiliations Mr. Beahan is a 
Democrat, and though he has never been a 
politician in the sense of office seeking, he 
has served as road commissioner and as- 
sessor. Throughout the greater part of his 
life he has carried on agricultural pursuits 
and now at the age of seventy-six years he 
is practically living in retirement, enjoying 
a well merited rest. 



FRANK LA FITTE MILLER. 

The history of the r.dvancement of 
Schuyler county along educational linea 
would not be complete without mention of 
Frank La Fitte Miller, who has attained pres- 
tige as a teacher and is now capably serving 
as a school commissioner. He was bom in 
the town of Reading, Schuyler county, July 
24, 1867, and represents one of the old 
families of the state. His ancestry can be 
traced back to Zachariah Miller, his great- 
grandfather, who was one of seven broth- 
ers.. He married Miss McCormick and 
among their children was Daniel Miller, 



\\ho wedded Sally Gould. Their son, Ed* 
win, and the father of our subject, was boni 
July 19, 1843, ^"^ ^^■'is married in October, 
1865, to Miss Phoebe A. Clawson. At the 
time of the Civil war he responded to his 
country's call for aid to cruih out the re- 
bellion in the sotith and enlisted in the Fif- 
tieth Regimait of New York Volunteers 
Engineers, with which he served from i86^ 
until 1865, later becoming a member of the" 
Grand Army of the Republic. 

Frank L. Miller pursued his education 
in the Dundee Preparatory School and in 
Cook Academy at Montour Falls, New 
York, pursuing a classical course, which 
preparetl him for college. He was gradu- 
ated in that institution in June, 1895. The 
eldest son of a poor man, he was obliged to 
earn money in order to pay his tuition and 
he has never been too proud to remember 
his early struggles or to tell of how he 
Avorked on the fanns through the summer 
months and taught school in the spring and 
fall seasons in order that he might continue 
his own studies through the winter months. 
Ambitious for a broad and thorough educa- 
tion, he utilized every opportunity that would 
advance him in this direction and won an 
excellait reputation for unfaltering perse- 
verance in every undertaking. He was en- 
abled to pursue his course in Cook Acad- 
emy by doing carpenter work, by caring for 
the reading rooni and by waiting on table. 
Very ambitious, his energy exceeded his 
strength and years of study together with 
long hours of hard work affected his health 
to such an extent that he was obliged to 
give up his cherised ambition of pursuing a 



collegiate course. Therefore upo 



his 



graduation from Cook Academy he began 
teaching and Schuyler county has certainly 
benefitetl bv his efforts in this direction. 




FRANK L. MILLER 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



381 



From September, 1895, ""'■' 1""^, 1896, he 
was a teacher at West Cornwall-on-the- 
Hudson and from the latter date until June, 

1899, he was principal of tlie Three Mile 
Bay union school in Jefferson county. New 
York. In June of the last mentioned year, 
however, he returned to North Hector and in 
November, following, he was elected school 
commissioner of Schuyler county for one 
term and served from the ist of January, 

1900, until the ist of January. 1903. On 
the 4th of November, 1902, he was re- 
elected to the office for a second term, which 
will continue his incumbency until the ist 
of January, 1906. At the second election 
he received a largely increased majority and 
no statement could indicate more clearly the 
confidence reposed in him by his fellow citi- 
zens because of his capability, fidelity and 
excellent service. He has given splendid 
satisfaction in the office, being fearless in 
the performance of his duty, tactful and 
courteous in the discharge of the work that 
de\^o]ves upon him. He is quiet and unob- 
trusive in his manner yet accomplishes re- 
sults with steadfastness of purpose and his 
work has been publicly commended by 
the Hon. Charles R. Skinner, the state 
superintendent of schools of New York. 
During his incumbency in the office the 
standard of teachers has been raised, the 
school property has been improved and ma- 
terial advancement has been made along 
lines of instruction and the methods of work 
done in the schoolroom. He is certainly 
well qualified for the position because of his 
wide experience as a teacher, his marked de- 
votion to and zeal for educational work and 
his tireless industry and these elements in 
his official career have won him the regard 
of all. 

In Canandaigua, Ontario county. New 

22 



^'ork, on the 27th of August, 1896, Mr. 
Miller was united in marriage to Miss Belle 
]\Iargaret Freeman, a daughter of the Rev. 
A. L. and Margaret (Bingham) Freeman. 
Her father was a Baptist clergyman of pro- 
minence. Mrs. Miller was educated at the 
Granger Place school of Canandaigua, in 
the Cook Academy of Montour Falls, in the 
\assar College of Poughkeepsie, New 
York, and prior to her marriage was a suc- 
cessful teacher. She is much interested in 
her husband's work and because of her own 
experience as a teacher is able to give him 
much assistance. Her family has ever been 
noted for intellectuality and for co-opera- 
tion in eveything pertaining to mental de- 
velopment. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Miller has 
been born one child : Frances Margaret, 
who died January 20, 1899, at the age of 
eighteen months. 

Mr. Miller is an earnest Republican 
whose support is given to the party because 
he believes firmly in its principles and real- 
izes that its platform contains the best ele- 
ments of good government. In 1896 he be- 
came a member of the Knights of Pythias 
fraternity, in which he has held the office of 
prelate, and in 1902 he joined the Knights 
of the Maccabees. He has also lalwred 
effectively and earnestly along moral lines 
and has been a member of the Baptist church 
of North Hector since a young man of 
twenty-one years. He is now serving as 
one of its trustees and is superintendent of 
its Sunday-school. Mr. Miller is a man of 
attractive personal appearance, is a pleasing 
conversationalist and in manner is very 
genial and courteous, possessing a quiet dig- 
nity which always attracts attention and 
commands respect, because it is the expres- 
sion of a character worthy of regard. He 
is kind-hearted and symp.iflictio mid com- 



382 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



mauds not only the esteem of his fellow- 
men, but also that warmer expression of 
affection which is usually termed friend- 
ship. 



CHARLES B. RHODES. 

In taking up the personal history of 
Charles Benjamin Rhodes we present to our 
readers the life record of one who is widely 
and favorably known in Schuyler county. He 
was born in this county on the 29th of June, 
1849, a son of John and Lucretia R. (Col- 
lins) Rhodes. The ancestry of the family 
can be traced back to William Rhodes, the 
great-grandfather of our subject, who was 
a native of England and in a very early day 
crossed the Atlantic to America, settling in 
Sussex county, Xew Jersey, thus founding 
the family in the new world, .\mong his 
children was John Rhodes, Sr.. who was 
united in marriage to Maria Shackleton and 
their son, John Rhodes, Jr., became the fa- 
ther of our subject. He was born July 15, 
1824, in Sussex county. New Jersey, and ob- 
tained a common school education. Leav- 
ing his native state he removed to Havana, 
New York, and later he became a resident of 
Millport, this state. At the age of eighteen 
years he left school and began earning his 
own livelihood as a farmer. In 1848 he was 
united in marriage to Miss Lucretia R. Col- 
lins, a daughter of Benjamin Collins, who 
was a son of B. and Ruth (Whitney) Col- 
lins, who removed from Connecticut and set- 
tled in Lansing, Tompkins county. New 
York, more than a century ago. Benjamin 
Collins was born in Lansing, New York, 
March 18. 1803, and by his marriage he had 
nine children : Mahala J., born October 24, 
1S26; Lucretia R., born Ninember 20, 1828; 



.\nn Sophia, born October 16, 1830; Ca- 
lista E., born July 24, 1833; Sarah E., born 
November 4, 1835; Lucinda, burn March 
19, 1838; Etta Linda, born July 8, 1840; 
Barnett C, born October 7, 1842; and 
Charles B., born July 2, 1845. 

John and Lucretia R. (Collins) Rhodes 
began their domestic life in Millport, where 
they lived for six years, removing thence to 
Townsend, which was their place of resi- 
dence for thirteen years. Their next home 
was in ^lorelaud and here, as rn the other 
communities in which he has resided, Mr. 
Rhodes is held in the highest respect by rea- 
son of his sterling worth. He had a family of 
four children : Charles B., born June 29, 
1849; ^lary E., born April 2, 185 1 ; Adelia 
S., who was born May 30, 1852, and is now 
deceased; and John G., who was born Sep- 
tember 28, 1854. The mother of these chil- 
dren died July 8, 1858, and on the 10th of 
February, 1859, Mr. Rhodes was again mar- 
ried, his second union being with Mahala J. 
Collins. They had but one child, Elmer F., 
who was born June 2, 1S67, and is now con- 
ducting a store at the Moreland station. He 
married Stella Kniffen. In his political affil- 
iations John Rhodes, the father of our sub- 
ject, is a stalwart Republican, having sup- 
ported the party since its organization. In 
his religious views he is a Methodist and his 
life has ever beeiT honorable and upright, in 
consistent harmony with his profession. 

Charles B. Rhodes of this review was 
reared amid the refining influences of a good 
Christian home and to the public school sys- 
tem he is indeljted for tlie educational privi- 
leges which he enjoyed until he reached the 
age of eighteen years. He then started out in 
life for himself and in 1881 he purchased 
the mill property which he still owns, con- 
ducting the business with good success. In 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



383 



1902 he purchased his farm, comprising 
ninety-five acres and to its further cultiva- 
tion and development he is now devoting his 
energies, in connection with his milling bus- 
iness. He is an enterprising, wide-awake 
and progressive man and in his business af- 
fairs he displays marked capability, careful 
management and keen discernment. He is 
now accounted one of the prosperous resi- 
dents of liis community and he is held in high 
respect l)y a large circle of friends, many of 
whom have known him from his boyhood. 
In politics he is a Republican and like his 
parents he has adhered to the faith of the 
Methodist church, which finds in him a zeal- 
ous advocate and earnest member. 



M.XRCUS M. CASS. 

Among the old and prominent families 
01 Schuyler county none have borne a more 
influential part in its development and up- 
building than the one of which Marcus M. 
Cass, of Watkins, is a worthy representa- 
tive. The first to bear the name in this part 
of the state was a Revolutionary soldier, who 
came from Massachusetts. His son, Josiah 
Cass, who fought at Lundy's Lane during 
the war of 1812. married Eunice, daughter 
of John and Desire (Bull) French, of Otse- 
go county. New \'ork. and to them were 
born six children, of whom Marcus M. is 
the youngest and the only one now living. 

Cynthia Ann, the eldest child of Josiah 
and Eunice (French) Cass, gave her hand in 
marriage, about 1840, to Dr. Samuel Wat- 
kins, in whose honor the village of Watkins 
was named. The Doctor was born on Long 
Island in 1772, and came to Schuyler county 
in 1828, having, as heir to his brother John, 



come into possession of a large part of the 
so-called "Watkins and Flint purchase" of 
three hundred and twenty-five thousand 
acres of land around the head of Seneca lake. 
He laid out the village which now bears his 
name and erected many of its notable build- 
ii.gs. At his death in 1851 he left to his 
willow the bulk of his estate, which consisted 
of a large amount of property in western 
New York. Mrs. Watkins was a woman of 
remarkable ability and force of character, 
upon whom had devolved the management 
of the Doctor's interests for a number of 
years previous to his death. She changed 
the name of the village from Jefferson to 
Watkins : gave it a public park ; endowed its 
academy ; and was foremost in all charitable 
and business enterprises. Subsequently she 
married her cousin, Judge George G. Freer, 
and, shortly afterward dying childless, she 
left her estate to her relatives. 

Marcus M. Cass, whose name introduces 
this review, was born in the town of 
Hector, this county, in 1824, and received 
advantages of travel and education unusual 
at that day. passing some years at the then 
celebrated Ithaca Academy and later attend- 
ing college. He afterward studied law in the 
oftice of Joshua Spencer, a distinguished at- 
torney of Utica, and continued his studies 
with the well known Rochester lawyer, 
Sciah Matthews. For a time he engaged in 
the practice of his profession at Buffalo with 
the late Norton A. Halbert, of New York 
city, but in 1856 returned to Watkins, where 
he has since made his home. 

In that year Mr. Cass was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Sarah A. Hurd, a daughter of 
Stephen Hurd and granddaughter of Gen- 
eral Edward Ilurd, a Revolutionary soldier 
from Sandgate. Bennington county, Ver- 
mont. Of the seven children born of this 



384 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



union, Marcus AI., Jr., is the eldest. He 
was educated at Cook Academy, the United 
States Mihtary Academy at West Point and 
the Columbia Law School. He engaged for 
a while in the practice of law, has done news- 
paper work in different cities and is now 
editor of the Watkins Express. He was as- 
sistant secretary of the state constitutional 
convention in 1894. The other members of 
the family are Mrs. George L. Meddick, of 
Elmira; Mrs. John M. Roe, of Watkins; 
I\lrs. Albert ¥i. Ohnsted, of Rochester; 
John L. and Schuyler C, both of W^atkins; 
and W. H. Seward, of Rochester. 

Mr. Cass is a gentleman of hne natural 
abilities and scholarly tastes, and of a phil- 
osophical and meditative turn of mind. He 
has been a life-long Republican, and was a 
forcible and polished speaker in the days 
when he interested himself in politics, but 
he never held or aspired to ofiice, though 
serving his party on the state Republican 
committee and as a delegate to the national 
convention which nominated President Lin- 
coln for a second term. He is passing the 
closing years of life quietly at his home in 
Watkins, and is a man of conceded high 
character and integritv. 



PETER GIBSON. 



Peter Gibson, who is identified with ag- 
ricultural pursuits in Schuyler county, was 
born in Barrington, Yates county, New 
York, March 12, 1835. His father, John 
Gibson, was a native of Washington, Penn- 
sylvania, and after arriving at years of ma- 
turity he wedded Mary Kinney. Their chil- 
drai were: John; Catherine; William; 
Nancy; Peter: Eliza and Sarah, who have 



passed away; and Clark. Of this number 
John, the eldest, was bom in Pennsylvania, 
received a common school education and at 
the age of eighteen years started out upon 
his business career. In 1858 he was mar- 
ried to Maria Kinney and their home is 
r.ow in Dundee, Yates county. They have 
five children : Frank, Rose, John, Belle and 
Jepp. Catherine, the .second of the family, 
became the wife of John Humphrey, but 
both are now deceased. William married 
Elizabeth Insco, of Dundee, New York, and 
they have three children : Melvin, Edson, 
deceased, and Anna. Nancy became the 
wife of John Haws. They took up their 
abode in Dundee and both died there. Sarah 
became the wife of William Kinney. Clark, 
the next member of the Gibson family, 
joined the Union army when only fourteen 
years of age and was killed in the war. 

Under the parental roof Peter Gibson, 
whose name introduces this review, spent 
the days of his boyhood in a manner not 
unlike that of the lads of the period. At 
the age of six years he entered the public 
schools and there pursued his studies until 
reaching the age of fourteen years. He then 
began working in a cabinet shop in Dresden, 
New York, where he \\as employed for twa 
years, after which he ran a boat between 
Watkins and New York. He followed boat- 
ing for three years, on the expiration of 
which period he entered the employ of 
Thomas Perry in the lumber business. 
Through thirteen years he was connected 
with the luml>er trade but he now follows 
farming and is one of the wide-awake, pro- 
gressive and successful agriculturists of his 
community. 

In the year 1867 Mr. Cibson was united 
in marriage to Miss Sarah Rodgers, a 
(laughter of John and Charlotte (Mitchell) 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



385 



Rodgers. In her parents' family were the 
following children : Henry lives in Wasii- 
ington. Mrs. Gibson is the next of the fam- 
ily. Charles, who was born in Xewfield, 
New York, was a soldier of the Civil war 
and died in Washington, D. C. Delphene 
died at the age of twenty years. Edwin J. 
Rodgers, the youngest memljcr of the fam- 
ily, was born in Mechlenburg, anil has al- 
ways resided there. 

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Gibson 
has been blessed with three children. Maude, 
the eldest, is the wife of John Houghtaling, 
who is engaged in horse training in Watkins, 
and they have one child, Louise. Charles 
and Katharine are the younger members of 
our subject's family. 



HUGH CARNEY. 



In the history of the men of Schuyler 
county who have been or are at the present 
time actively connected with the business in- 
terests here and whose names are found on 
the roll of valued citizens was Hugh Carney. 
He was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, 
May 20, 1835, and died in \\'atkins. New 
York, on the 13th of June, 1881. His par- 
ents were Francis and Catherine Irvine Car- 
ney; the former died when the son was but 
ten years of age. With his mutiier and two 
sisters Hugh Carney came to the new world 
in 1859; for a few years the family lived in 
Corning, New York, afterward coming to 
Watkins, where the mother's death occurred. 
Two brothers of our subject were Jolin and 
Francis Carney ; the latter served man}- 
years in the legislature and later became 
lieutenant governor of Colorado. 

Hugh Carney remained with his mother 



during the period of his youth ; when a 
young man he resjionded to the call of his 
adopted country for aid to crush out the 
rebellion, enlisting in 1862, as a member of 
Company G, One Hundred and Si.xty-first 
New York Volunteers, Ijeing made a ser- 
geant of his company on the 27th of Oc- 
tober, of the same year. He participated in 
the battle of J Main Store, ^lay 18, 1863, and 
was at Port Jiudson from May 27 until July 
8, 1863. He was also at Co.x Plantation 
in Louisiana, on the 13th of July; at Sabine 
Crossroads on the 8th of April, 1864; at 
Pleasant Mill on the following day; at Carne 
River Crossing on the 23d of April ; and at 
IMansura, May 17, 1864. He also jiartici- 
paled in the siege of Mobile, of Spanish i'ort 
and of Fort Blakely ; he was wounded in the 
thigh while on board a transport, making 
the passage from Port Huron to Donneison. 
On another occasion he was also wounded, 
having three ribs broken. The ball in the 
thigh, however, was never taken out, and 
caused him much suffering throughout the 
remainder of his life, .\fter he had been 
wounded he was sent home, but as soon as 
possible he rejuincd his regiment: he served 
allogether for three )-ears and three months. 
Av'hen hostilities were over and the country 
no longer needed his military service, he was 
honorably discharged at Fort Jefferson. 
Florida, September 20, 1865. He made for 
himself a creditable military record because 
f<f his fidelity to the old flag, and the cause 
it represented. 

On the 4th of July. 1866, .Mr. Carney 
was united in marriage to Mi.ss Esther R. 
Beahan, a daughter of Thomas antl b'lorence 
I'ausett Beahan, who was born in the house 
where she is now living, January 18, 1831. 
For about two years after their marriage 
Mr. Carnov resided in Watkins: then he re- 



386 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



moved to the farm where his family now re- 
side. i)iircliasing; one hundred and tliirteen 
acres of land wliich belonged to Mrs. Car- 
ney's father. He remodeled the building, 
placed his fields under a high state of culti- 
vation and made many excellent improve- 
ments upon his land. 

As the years passed the home was blessed 
by the presence of five children. Frank, the 
eldest, born March 15, 1S68, is a graduate 
of Starkey Seminary and of Cornell Uni- 
\ersity, and has since devoted his attention 
to educational work, having been principal 
successively of Starkey Seminary and Keuka 
Institute, and at present assistant principal 
in the Ithaca High School. He wedded 
Mary Keegan, of Oakfield, Genesee county, 
New York ; they have five children, Esther, 
Ewart, Harry, Florence and Frances. 
Thomas J., torn August 15, 1869, is a grad- 
uate of Starkey Seminary and of the Long 
Island iledical College of Brooklyn ; he is 
now engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion in New York City. He is especially 
skilled in surgery and has done much hos- 
pital work, gaining a high reputation in his 
profession. Cliarles Emmett. born Febru- 
ary 4. 1 87 1, acquired his education in the 
public schools and at Starkey Seminary ; he 
taught in the common schools and is now op- 
crating the home farm. Edward J., Ijorn 
June 19, 1873, '^ ^ graduate of the medical 
department of the University of Chicago ; he 
is engaged in practice in Durand. Michi- 
gan. Elizalieth C, the only daughter, is at 
home. 

Mr. Carney was an earnest worker in 
the ranks of the Democratic ])arty and 
strongly endorsed its jirinciples, Init he had 
no desire for the honors or emoluments of 
public office. He was reared in the Catholic 
church, having been conlirmcd in Ireland, 



and in that faith he died. If the good will 
of one's fellownien is an accurate criterion, 
Mr. Carney had a successful career, and as 
the architect of his own fortunes he builded 
wisely and well. Dqiendent upon his own 
labor from an early age, he made unflagging 
industry and strong purpose the character- 
istic principles of a short but well spent life. 
He was found to be reliable in matters of 
citizenship, was public spirited, and in the 
home and social relations was true to every 
characteristic of an honorable manhood, so 
that when he was called to his final rest his 
death w^as the occasion of deep regret in the 
communitv where he lived. 



MRS. MARGARET McCREERY. 

Mrs. Margaret IVIcCreery, who is well 
known in W'atkins, was born in County 
lOonegal, Ireland, on the 7th of May. 1837, 
a daughter of William and Margaret (Hun- 
ter) Ewing. in whose family were nine chil- 
dren, namely: William, C'atherine, Jane, 
I'Jiza, John. Ellen, Margaret, and two who 
died in infancy. Mrs. McCreer\- spent her 
girlhood in her native land, and wtis trained 
to habits of industry and economy. In 1864, 
before leaving that country she gave her 
hand in marriage to John McCreery, a son 
of Alartin and Jane (Dougherty) McCreerj', 
who were the parents of the following chil- 
dren : John, Rebecca, .\sa, William, George 
and Matthew. The last two are deceased. 

It was in 1867 that Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
Creery crossed the briny deep to the new 
world and settled in W'atkins, New York, 
Their union was l)lessed by a family of four 
children: William, John, \'ine and Mary, 
fohn and \'ine are now deceased. Will- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



387 



iani. tlie eldest, was born in Ireland, prior to 
the emigration of his parents to America, 
and he was reared in Schuyler connty, New- 
York. He married Anna \'Ay. of Pennsyl- 
vania, and they have one son. Harry Albert. 
From the time Mrs. McCreery came to 
the United States down to the present, cov- 
ering a period of over a third of a century, 
she has made her home in Watkins. In 
1887 she was called upon to mourn the loss 
of her husband. Since April, 190J, she has 
been temporarily conducting a boarding 
house for the accommodation of a few 
bridgemen while repairing the (ilen Pavilion 
bridge on the Xew York Central Railroad. 
She is a woman of more than ordinary busi- 
ness aliility, and is a most estimable lady, 
highly respected for her genuine worth. 



JOHN DRURY SULLIVAN. 

John Drury Sullivan, the respected chief 
of police of Watkins. Xew York, was boni 
in that place on the 291!) of March, 1863, and 
is a son of Patrick and Johanna (Drury) 
Sullivan. The parents were born in County 
Kerry, Ireland, and in the year 1861 crossed 
the Atlantic to the new world. The following 
year they removed from Elmira, New York, 
to Watkins, where the father lived until his 
death, which occurred August 29, 1901. 
His widow, however, still resides in the old 
home on Third street in Watkins. 

The subject of this review attended the 
common schools in his youth and at the age 
of sixteen he began earning his own liveli- 
hood as an employe of the Northern Central 
Railroad, with which company he remained 
in different positions until he was about thir- 
tv years of age. llis work, however. 



was not entirely continuous for at different 
times he followed other pursuits. In the 
meantime he learned the stone-cutter's trade, 
which he followed for several years and later 
he took up the tailoring business in the shop 
of Gurnett lirotliers in Watkins, becoming 
familiar with the work in every detail and 
attaining considerable proficiency in that 
line. In 1894 he opened a shop of his own 
at W'atkins, where he has since carried on 
business in a successful way, his patronage 
constantly growing as the years pass by. 

I\Ir. Sullivan has not only been active 
and progressive in business, but has also been 
a leader in public affairs in his native town. 
He was appointed by the board of trustees 
of the village to the position of chief of po- 
lice, in which office he is now serving. He 
had previously, on several different occas- 
ions, done duty as a special police and had 
e\er been loyal and reliable. He is well 
qualified for the position which he is now 
holding, and his course is one which 
awakens the confidence of all law-abiding 
citizens and is a menace to those who do not 
b.old themselves amenable to law. Me is 
indefatigable in hunting down those who 
infringe upon the rights of property and of 
their fellow men, and Watkins finds in him 
an excellent officer, lie has been .1 member 
of the Imjiroved Order of Red Men since 
1895 and he also belonged to the National 
Protected Legion. 

On the i_nh of June, iS(;S, Mr. Sulli- 
van was united in marri.ige to Miss Anna 
K. Donovan, a daughter of James and 
Ih'idget (O'Keefe) Donovan. Mr. Sullivan 
and his wife belong to the Catholic church 
and in politics he is a Democrat. He has 
served as committeeman of his township and 
three times has been a delegate to the conven- 
tions of his p;irly. His jiublic circer and 



388 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



official service are alike commendable and 
in private life he is esteemed for many excel- 
lent traits of character. 



GEORGE WISPERT. 

George W'ispert. who is engaged in gard- 
ening in Scluiyler county, was bora in the 
city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 
17th of Septei-.ilxjr, 1841. He acquireil 
a common-school education in his youth 
and at the age of fifteen he put aside 
his text books in order that he might be- 
come a factor in business life He turned 
his attention to foundry work, which he 
follower! in Xew Jersey for four years. On 
the expiration of that period, however, 
he put aside all business and personal con- 
siderations in order that lie might aid in the 
preservation of the Union, for the country 
had become invol\-ed in civil war. He 
joined Company C, of the First Xew Jersey 
Ca\7ilr)-. with whicli he served for about 
three years, being mustered out on the 3d 
of July. 1S63. For three months of that 
time he had been in the hospital and then 
rejoined his command. On Sheridan's raid 
near Richmond, in 1S64. he lost his right 
arm, and he was also taken prisoner there. 
I'or three months he was held in captivity, 
suffering all the hardships and privations 
known to southern prison life. He was 
then dischargetl at Trenton, Xew Jersey, 
where he was mustered out. He hail made 
a great sacrifice for his country, which cer- 
tainly owes to him a debt of gratitude, which 
can never be repaiil. 

After leaving the army Mr. \Visi>ert 
went to Florence. Xew Jersey, his old home. 
Tliere he remained for two months, after 



which he returned to Washington and was 
given a position in the government repair 
shops. He remained tliere until 1S65, when 
lie went back to Florence. New Jersey, 
which remained his place of residence for 
two years. On the expiration of that period 
he located in Trenton, Xew Jersey, remain- 
ing there for four months, and then went to 
Ocean Grove. Xew Jersey, which was his 
place of abode for three years. He next 
made his home in Elmira, Chemung county, 
Xew York, for four years and tlien removed 
to Branchport, Xew York, residing there 
until the ist of April. 190J. That date wit- 
nessed his arrival in Montour Falls, where 
he is now living and is devoting his atten- 
tion to gardening, which business he is suc- 
cessfully conducting. 

On the 8th of February. 1867. Mr. Wis- 
])ert was united in marriage to Miss Hannah 
Ann McCartney, who was \x>m in 1840. in 
Chester county, Pennsylvania. Her father, 
William McCartney, was a native of Ger- 
mantown. Pennsylvania, and weildetl Lydia 
I'itch. whose father was lx>m in Dublin. Ire- 
land. Mr. and Mrs. W'ispert have three 
children : George C. Margaret Rebecca and 
W illiam L. Although one of the more re- 
cent arrivals in Montour Falls. Mr. W'ispert 
has become already well known in this lo- 
cality, and has gained the respect and friend- 
f-\\\\t of many with whom he has been 
l)rought in contact. 



ADDISOX HEXYAX. 

In taking up the personal histor\- of Ad- 
dison Hen>-an we present to our readers the 
life record of one whose career illustrates 
that success is not a matter of goiius or the 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



389 



outgrowth of fortunate circumstances, but 
is a direct result of the capable control of 
business affairs and of untiring labor. He 
had verj- few advantages in youth — less than 
niost boys — and yet to-day he is regarded as 
one of the prosperous farmers of his com- 
munity. Mr. Henyan was born in the town 
of Dix, Schuyler county, July 26, 1831. He 
had no educational privileges, for there was 
no school house within ten miles of his home. 
His training at farm labor, however, was 
not meagre, for he early assisted in the ardu- 
ous task of developing the fields, following 
the plow almost from the time that he was 
able to reach the plow handles. 

As a companion and helpmate for life's 
journey Mr. Henyan chose Miss Emeline 
Houtney, who was born in the town of Dix, 
in January, 1837. They became the parents 
of eight childrai. Sarah, the eldest, is now 
the wife of William Rhineliart, of Croton, 
New York, and they have five children : 
Emma, Philena, Helen, Ira and Elmer. 
Elsa, the second meml>er of the Henyan fam- 
ily, became the wife of Albert King. They 
own the farm upon which they now reside. 
Susan is the wife of Thomas Gilman, a resi- 
dent of Moreland, New York, and they have 
six children, Harrison, Mary, Burton, 
Emma, Edward and Ernest. William mar- 
ried Ida Gilbert, who died .'n 1901, leaving 
two sons, Clarence and John. Henrj' is the 
next of the family and George is employed 
on the electric railroad. Flora is the wife 
of Charles Couch, a resident of Millport, 
and they have one child, Hattie. Bertha, 
the youngest member of the Henyan family, 
is the wife of James Crippen, and they, too, 
have a daughter, Mildred. 

Throughout his entire life Mr. Henyan 
has carried on agricultural pursuits and he 
owes his success to his untiring industrv' and 



to the assistance of his estimable wife. He 
earned the money with which to make the 
first payment on his place by cutting ties 
which he and his wife hauled down from the 
mountain with ropes. Selling these they 
realized two hundred dollars, which they 
invested in the farm upon which they 
are now living. They to-day have sixty-five 
acres of the rich and productive soil of 
Schuyler county, their home beirg in Mon- 
tour township, near Montour Falls. There 
are excellent improvements upon this place, 
all put there by Mr. Haiyan, and annually 
he secures good harvests in fruits and cereals 
as the result of his labors. In his political 
views he is a Republican, but has never 
sought or desired ofiice, his entire attaition 
being given to his farm work. 



JAMES H A:\LEY. 

James Hanley, an honored veteran of the 
Civil war, now owns and operates one hun- 
dred and forty-five acres of rich land in the 
town of Hector. He was born in that town 
on the 5th of January, 1841, and is a son 
of Aaron and Caroline (Smith) Hanley. 
The district schools afforded him his edu- 
cctional privileges and at the age of nineteen 
he put aside his te.Kt books in order to shoul- 
der a rifle in defense of tlie Union. 
Donning the blue uniform of the nation, he 
became a member of Company I, Twenty- 
third New York Infantry, at Watkins in 
May, 1861, and was mustered in at Elmira. 
He participated in the second battle of Bull 
Run. Antietam, South Mountain, the first 
engagement in Fredericksburg, the battle of 
Chancellorsville, and other sanguinary en- 
gagements, being always found at his post 



390 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



of duty, wliether it led liim into the thickest 
of the fight or stationed him upon the lonely 
picket line. He was honorably discharged 
at Elmira and was tliere mustered out in 
May, 1863. 

When his militar)- services were over Mr. 
Hanley began farming and throughout his 
entire life he has carried on agricultural pur- 
suits in the town of Hector. He to-day 
owns one hundred and forty-five acres of 
valuable land, constituting the farm upon 
which he was born. Here he has a \ineyard 
covering twelve acres and the remainder of 
his land is devoted to general farming, and 
the well tilled fields return to him a golden 
tribute to the care and labor bestowed upon 
them. He has substantial improvements 
upon his place and the farm is a valuable and 
attractive one. 

On the 19th of Januaiy, 1870, Mr. Han- 
ley was united in marriage to Miss Clarissa 
Arminda Everets, a daughter of Alfred and 
Emeline (Warner) Everets. The first rec- 
ord we have of the Everets family states that 
Daniel Everets, great-grandfather of Mrs. 
Hanley, came from Connecticut to the Em- 
pire state. Her mother was born in the town 
of Hector and after li\ing in Schuyler coun- 
ty for a number of years her parents removed 
to the town of Newton, now Elmira. Mrs. 
Hanley was born in the town of Hector, Oc- 
tober 1 1, 1844, and was educated in the pub- 
lic schools and in a select school of the vil- 
lage. She is an estimable lady and one 
whose friends in the community are many. 
Mr. Hanley maintains pleasant relations 
with his old army comrades through his 
membership in the G. D. Smith Post, No. 
423, G. A. R., of North Hector, in which he 
has been honored with office, serving for one 
term as its commander. Prominent as a 
supporter and worker of the Republican 



party, in the year 1885-6 he ser\ed as super- 
\isor of the town of Hector. He attends the 
Pi-esbyterian church and is a man whose in- 
fluence is ever on the side of progress, im- 
l)rovement and reform. 



CHARLES SCHUYLER DIBBLE. 

Charles Schuyler Dibble was bom in Mon- 
tour Falls on the i8th of April, 1854, a son 
of Sedate \\'ads worth and Hannah (Owens) 
Dibble. He comes of a loyal and patriotic 
family which was rqjresented in both the 
Revolutionary war and the war of 181 2. 
His paternal grandfather. Sedate Wads- 
worth Dilible, Sr., was a native of England 
and on coming to America settled on the 
present site of Richmond, \'irginia, where he 
owned a large tract of land. Occasion final- 
ly called liim back to England and he was 
never heard from again. Our subject's father 
was born in Penn.sylvania, June i, 1802, and 
at an early day removed from that state to 
Schuyler county. New York, where he was 
employed as a laborer. After a useful and 
well spent life he passed away September 20, 
1880, at the age of seventy-two years. For 
his first wife he married Elizabeth E. Owens, 
nho was bom .\ugust 6, 1812, their mar- 
riage being celebrated on the 6th of I-'ebru- 
ary, 1831. By that union three children were 
liorn, namel\ : George H., torn February 
6, 1833, died soon after the Ciril war; Silas 
Andrew, born September 21, 1835, was 
Idlled in tliat struggle; and Enos, born .'\ug- 
ust 4, 1841, died young, .\fter the death 
of his first wife Sedate W. Dibble married 
her sister, Hannah H. Owens, by whom he 
had five children : Sedate W., born July 8, 
1S42, died at tlie age of eleven years; Eliza- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



391 



beth Ellen. Ijoni I-'ehniary 25. 1845. makes 
lier lioiiie willi lier l)rotlier, John; Jolin A., 
iioni Mnrcli Ji. 184S, is a resident of Mon- 
tour Falls; Alon/TO Perry, born March 9, 
1851, is represented elsewhere in this vol- 
ume : and C. Schuyler, of this review, com- 
pletes the family. Tlie mother of these chil- 
dren died December 19, 1901, at the age of 
eighty-two years. 

C. Schuyler Dibble entered tlie public 
schools at the usual age. pursuing his studies 
continuously until he reached the age of 
eighteen years. The following year he Ije- 
gan leaming the mason's trade and later he 
turned his attention to the meat business, 
which he followed for six years, conducting 
a market of his own during the greater part 
of that time. On tlie expiration of that per- 
iod he sold his business and after resting 
about a year he began again in the saloon 
business, dealing in li(|uors for about three 
years. Subsequently lie removed his business 
to Watkins, where, in partnership with his 
brother, Joim, he established a bottling busi- 
ness, which they still conduct. They have 
.secured a liberal patronage in tliis line and 
their sales are quite extensive, .so tliat they 
annually receive a good income as the result 
of their labor, capable management and 
earnest desire to please their patrons. 

On tlie 8th of April. 1885. C. Schuyler 
Dibble was united in luarriage to Miss Olive 
H. Personius. who was born in Slaterville, 
Tompkins county, Sejjtember 26, 1867, a 
daughter of Gilbert and Mary (Ruck) Per- 
sonius. Her ancestors came originally from 
Tloiiand and settled in Tompkins county, 
Xew York, where representatives of the 
family reside. Her paternal great-grand- 
father. Everet Personius, and his brother, 
James, were soldiers of the war of 1812. 
Thev belonged to a faiuilv of seven jjrothers 



who came to America about 1800. Mrs. 
Dibl)le's maternal grandfather. Daniel Buck, 
married Sally Allen, who. was a native of 
\'ermont. and a descendant of Ethan Allen, 
of Revolutionary fame. Her parents were 
John and Betsey (Conklin) Allen, who, with 
their family renKjved to Chemung county, 
Xew York, at an early day. For many years 
j3aniel Buck and !iis wife made their home in 
Beaver Dams, New York, and the latter 
lived to the extreme old age of eighty-four 
years, being well remembered by Mrs. Dil>- 
ble. Gilbert Per.sonius, Mrs. Dibble's father, 
was born in Beaver Dams, December 5, 
1S42, and was there reared, learning the 
blacksmith's trade during his youth. When 
the Civil war broke out he ran away from 
home and went to Ithaca, where he enlisted 
in the Thirty-second New York Volunteer 
Infantry. When his term of service had ex- 
])ired he re-enlisted in the Sixty-fourth Xew 
York Regiment, and remained in the army 
until the close of the war. On his return 
home he was so broken down in health he 
was not able to work much at his trade, and 
is now an invalid, living in Montour Falls, 
which place for twenty years has been his 
liome. He married Mary Buck, who was 
born December 18, 1844, and two children 
graced their union. Mrs. Dibble being the 
elder. l.cUie A., born October 16. 1873. 
married Charles Terwilliger and died Hc- 
toljer 25, i8qi. 

Mr. and Mrs. Dibble began their domes- 
tic life in the house which is yet their home 
and have lived there continuously since. 
They lia\'c one chiM. Lcn(vre. born August 
21. t888. In his political afiiliations .Mr. 
Dibble is a Democrat, and as every true 
American citizen should do he keeps well in- 
formed Mil the issues of the day and supports 
llie principles in w liich he believes, yet he has 



392 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



never been an active politician in the sense of 
office seeking, preferring to give liis time and 
attention to his business interests, though he 
did serve for tv.o terms as constable. 



DAVID HURLEY. 



David Hurley, now deceased, was num- 
l)ered among the representative business men 
of Watkins, and at the time of his death the 
community felt that it had lost a valued citi- 
zen. He was born in Orange county, New 
York, May 27, 181 1, his parents being Will- 
iam and Mary (Mapes) Hurley, who re- 
moved to Seneca county. New York, when 
their son David was but three years of age. 
There he entered the public schools, continu- 
ing his studies until sixteen years of age, 
when he came to the town of Reading, 
Schuyler county, making it his place of resi- 
dence until he was called to his final rest. In 
his younger years he had followed agricul- 
tural pursuits but at length abandoned the 
plow in order to give his attention to the 
butchering business, which he followed 
throughout the remainder of his business ca- 
reer. He established a shop in Watkins, and 
there he secured a good trade l^ecause his 
business methods were reliable, and he wa:i 
always prompt and courteous in his treat- 
ment of his customers. 

]\Ir. Hurley was twice married. He 
wedded C^ynthia Berry and they became the 
parents of four children: Daniel B., Myron 
?.. Judson H. and Mumford K. For his 
=cc(jnd wife Mr. Hurley chose Miss Mar- 
garet Taylor, tiicir marriage l:)eing celebrated 
on the 14th of ^lay, 185^. The lady was 
born August 6, 1833, and is a daughter of 
Solomon and Margaret C Fulton) Taylor. 



She is also a distant relative of Robert Ful- 
tun. the noted sieamboat inventor, who was 
bnrn in Litchfield. Connecticut. Her ma- 
ternal grandfather, Hairy Fulton, was bom 
of German parentage and was a soldier of 
the Revolutionary war, valiantly aiding in 
the cause of independence. Unto Mr. and 
Mrs. Hurley were bom three children. 
?\linerva J. became the wife of William C. 
Brightman, and died February 6, 1901. 
Rushmer ]., born June 29, 1856, died Aug- 
ust 31, 1866. Edwin T., the youngest, born 
May 27, i860, married Delia G. Hopson. 

David Hurley, whose name introduces 
this record, was a Democrat in his political 
\iews and had firm faith in the principles of 
the party, believing that its measures were 
best calculated to advance good govemment. 
]n early life he belonged to the Baptist 
church in Reading Center and later to the 
church of the same denomination in Wat- 
kins, and lived an upright, consistent Chris- 
tian life. He died Septeml)er 13. 1899, 
leaving behind him the memory of an honor- 
able career. Mrs. Hurley is also an earnest 
Christian and a woman of kindly nature who 
has won the confidence and esteem of all 
\vho know her. She deeply mourns the loss 
of her only daughter, who was her constant 
companion and w[io was a lady of many ad- 
mirable qualities; loved and respected by her 
r.umerous frienils. 



MARTIN L. FROST. 

^lartin L. h'rosl. whose entire life has 
1 ccn spent in the Empire state, and wlio no •. 
follows farming in the town of Montour 
Schuyler county, was Ijorn in Chemung 
county on the 17th of August. 1833. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



393. 



At tlie age of sixteen he regarded his sclioul 
life as completed, and started out to make 
his own way in the world. He was em- 
ployed at farm labor, at carpentering and at 
cabinet-making. He also worked as a mill- 
wright and in tliese various ways he provid- 
ed for his support. 

At the early age of nineteen years he was 
united in marriage to Miss Jane Williams, 
a daughter of Samuel and Maria (Brother- 
ton) Williams, both of whom are now de- 
ceasetl. In the year 1852 our subject and 
his wife became residents of Odessa, where 
he followed milling until the Civil war broke 
out. 

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Frost has 
been blessed with five children : Elizabeth 
Riley and Magdalamins, both deceased ; Al- 
bert. Wilmer and Fred. Albert married 
Anna Ilulford ajid resides in Lycoming 
county, Pennsylvania. Wilmer wedded Lula 
Smith and they reside in the town of Hec- 
tor with their four children, Walter, Floyd. 
lUanche and Nelson. Fred, the youngest 
member of the Frost family, wedded Addie 
Bemont and their home is in Montour Falls. 
They have two interesting children, X^iolet 
and Florence. 

Martin L. Frost is one of the honored 
veterans of the Civil war. When his coun- 
try became involved in a weighty controversy 
over the right claiiiied by some of the south- 
ern states to secede from the L'nion. he 
joined the army in defense of its flag and the 
cause represented by the starry banner. 
Hardly had the smoke from Fort Sumter's 
guns cleared away when he offered his ser- 
vices to the government, enlisting on the 
25th of April. i86r. as one of the boys in 
blue of Company K. Third New York In- 
fantry. He went to the front under the com- 
mand of Captain Mulford and served for two 



years, after which he returned to his home. 
He then remained in the north for twa 
years, at the end of which time he re-enlisted, 
continuing with his regiment until mustered 
out after the close of hostilities, on the 8th 
of June, 1865. During his entire army ex- 
perience he was only ill twice and was never 
in the hospital. In his political affiliations 
Mr. Frost is a Democrat, but is not bitterly 
partisan. He is at all times true to what he 
feels to be his duty to his country, and with 
the same earnestness that he displayed on 
the field of battle he supports his political 
■^ iews. 



MRS. LEWIS M. BAILEY. 

Mrs. Lewis M. Bailey is well known in 
Montour F"alls, where since her husband's 
death she has conducted the business which 
lie carried on. She is a daughter of John 
McClernan. who was lx)rn in Ireland, in 
1846. and in 1855 he was brought to Amer- 
ica by his parents, the family settling in the 
town of Montour, Schuyler county. After 
the days of his boyhood and youth were 
passed and when lie had reached manhood, 
he was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
Brady, who came to America in 1855. This 
worthy couple became the parents of three 
children. George married Daisy Hyna and 
they reside in Cljfton Springs, where he is 
engaged in blacksnu'thing. Philip, the sec- 
ond son, is conducting a cigar factory in 
Coming, where he resides with his wife and 
family. He married Ilattie Howard and 
their children are Ralph and Philip. 

Catherine McClernan, the third memlier 
of the family, gave her hand in marriage on 
the 8th of October, 1896, to Lewis M. 
Bailey. His parents were LeRoy and Flor- 



394 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



ence (Cuiiiniings) Bailey, who are residents 
of Newfielci. Tiiey had three children. Frat- 
nes, who married Ella Corine and resides at 
Erie, Pennsylvania. He is a traveling man, 
and Ijy his marriage has become the father 
of one chil'l. Miles, the second member of 
the Bailey family, is decea.sed. Lewis was 
tlie third. The father is engaged in the man- 
utacture of cigars in Alontour Falls, where 
he has a well appointed factory and is doing 
an excellent business. He is one of tlie oldest 
settlers of the county, and a prominent rep- 
resentative of its trade interests. 

The marriage of Mr. and Mi's. Bailey 
\> as blessed with one child, Mildred. In 
order to provide for his family Mr. Bailey 
engaged in the manfacture of cigars in 
Montour l-'alls until his death, which oc- 
curred on the i8th of January, 1898. Since 
tliat time Mrs. Bailey has carried on the busi- 
ness and among the celebrated brands of 
cigars made in her establishment is that 
called the Marvelous Pastime. Tiiis has a 
large sale as do other cigars which are matle 
here. Mrs. Bailey possesses good business 
ability and executive force. She is also 
widely known in the village in which she has 
IdU"" resided and here she has manv friends. 



ALBERT PECORARA. 

-Albert Pecorara is the son of fioivona- 
gelio Pecorara and Mariacarmina Noterpa- 
\ollo, and was born March 15, 1870, in 
Roccaromana in the state of Car.serta, Italy. 
He has two sisters: Cladilda, was torn in 
June, 1867, and still lives in Italy; and 
Marie, who was bom May 20, 1875, and 
lives in W'atkins, New York. The common 
schools afforded our suliject his educational 



privileges and he continued his studies until 
fifteen years of age, when he began learning 
the tailoring trade, which he followed for 
six months. He then turned his attention 
to farming in the employ of his father, with 
\\hom he worked for two years, after which 
he began buying and selling sheep and cattle, 
l)ut a disease broke out among his stock, and 
lie lost all of it. 

Thinking to retrieve his financial posi- 
tion in the new world and hoping that he 
would find it easier to gain a competence in 
this country, he crossed the Atlantic to Xew 
"N'ork city, \vhere he remained for two 
months. He then went to California, wdiere 
he worked on the railroad for six months 
as water boy, after wliich he returned to 
?vew A'ork. On this occasion he spent 
eighteen months in the American metropolis 
and there learned the barber's trade, after 
which he took up his abode in Griggsville, 
where he conducted a barber shop for one 
year. On the expiration of that period he 
remo\ed to Rochester, where he lived for 
fourteen months and then came to Watkins, 
in 1891, establishing a shop in this place. 
Por five years he carried on business witli a 
partner and then embarked upon an inde- 
pendent venture, opening a shop on Fourth 
street in Watkins, in the store building of 
L. D. \Vest. At this place he has since re- 
mained and now has a good patronage 
among the best class of citizens of Watkins. 

Mr. Pecorara was married on the 25th 
of November, 1900, to Miss Laura Saragene. 
who was born in Polmali province, Cketa, 
September 20. 1878, and the following year 
he erected a fine home on Madison avenue, 
Mliere he and his wife are now living. Mr. 
Pecorara has a ready command of the Eng- 
lish language and acts as interpreter for the 
lialinns of Schuyler county. The hope that 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



395 



led him to leave liis sunny Italy and become 
an American citizen has been more than real- 
ized for in the "land of the free" he has 
found good business opportunities and has 
gained a comfortable living. Since coming 
to America he has supported the Democracy 
and is a member of the Catholic church. 



WILLIAM C. PALMER. 

William C. Palmer was torn on the 9th 
of May, 1834, in the town of Ohio, Herki- 
uicr county, Xew York, but in his early 
youth he came to Schuyler county, the father 
removing his family here. He is a son of 
Zimr)' Palmer, who in early manhood wed- 
ded Miss Jane Gumming, and in 1835 they 
left Herkimer county and removed to Tomp- 
kins county; in 1846 took up their residence 
in Chemung county and the following year 
came to Schuyler county, locating in the 
town of Dix. They were the parents of ten 
children, as follows: Janet, James D., Mary 
A., John, William. Hannah, Eliza, Melissa, 
Rhoda and George. Of this number Janet, 
Hann.ih, Eliza and George are all now de- 
ceased. James, who is living in Montour 
I'ails, is a carpenter by trade and also owns 
a farni. He wedded Marilla Baker, and 
tlieir children arc .\rthur O., Edward C. and 
Lera .\., the last named now deceased. 
Mary A. Palmer is the wife of Thomas 
Owens, a resident of the town of Dix, and 
they had one child, William, now deceased. 
John Palmer is living in Waverly and mar- 
ried Cynthia Shuman, by whom he has one 
child. Charles. William C, of this review, 
is the next of his father's family. Melissa 
is the wife of Esmus Woodward, a resident 
of Montour Fails, and they have one child. 



L l\dc Woodward. Mr. Woodward is a far- 
mer by occupation. Rhoda, the youngest 
living member of the Palmer family, is the 
wife of I. H. Smith, of Montour Falls. They 
lost one child named Lenna, and their liv- 
ing daughter, wluv bears the name of Leola, 
is the wife of John Owens, of Montour Falls. 

When a youth of about thirteen years 
William C. Palmer accompanied his parents 
on their removal to this county, and his edu- 
cation, which had been begun in the schools 
ot Herkimer county, was here continued un- 
til he was about twenty years of age. He 
then began farming on his own account, and 
tlie previous experience which he had had 
in his boyhood in assisting in the work of 
his father's farm now proved very valuable 
to him. After three years he made a trip to 
California, spending three years on the Pa- 
cific slope, after which he returned to Wat- 
kins, and in Schuyler county he has since 
made his iiome, having a wide acquaintance 
here among its best citizens. 

On t!ie 1st of December, 1863, Mr. Pal- 
mer was united in marriage to Miss Ellen, a 
daugluer of Patrick McStay, who was born 
in Ireland and came to America in 1820. In 
Boston he was married to Miss Philena 
Rodgers, and they reside in the town of Dix, 
this county. Their children are as follows : 
Edward, now deceased ; Daniel, a resident of 
Kansas, who married Elizal)eth Huntly and 
has four children, Adelbert. Ellie, Carrie and 
Leroy; John, of Waterloo, Iowa, who mar- 
ried Catherine Sargent, by whom he has 
four children : Mona, .\1\ ah, Grace and 
Earl ; Alice, the wife of C. W. Corwin, of 
Iowa, by whom she had two children, W. H. 
and Maude, but the latter is now deceased; 
■\lary, the wiieof Frank Morgan, of Kansas, 
by whom she has seven children. William, 
Xettie. F<iward. Ikrlha, Earl, I'lovd and 



396 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Rex ; and I'eter, the youngest of tl;e AIc- 
Stay family, a resident of Los Angeles, Cal- 
ifornia. He is engaged in mining gold and 
he has two sons, Walter and Charley. 

The marriage of our subject and his 
wife was celebrated in Iowa, after which he 
brought his bride to his home in Montour 
Falls, and their marriage was blessed with 
Iwo sons, Mott H. and Fred W'.. but both 
died of typhoid fever, at the ages of twenty- 
seven and twenty-six years respectively. 
Throughout their married life Mr. and Mrs. 
Palmer have remained in Schuyler county 
and arc widely and favorably known here, 
possessing many qualities of sterling worth 
which have won for them the esteem and re- 
gard of tho.se with whom they ha\-e been as- 
sociated. Religiously they are members of 
the Presbyterian church of W'atkins. and 
politically ?vlr. Palmer is a Democrat but at 
local elections he votes independent of party 
lines, supporting the men whom he believes 
best qualified for office. He has served as 
inspector of elections, and in 1876 was 
elected assessor, which ofifice he acceptably 
filled for six vears. 



P. HALSEY HAWES. 

In the front ranks of the columns which 
have advanced the material upbuilding and 
substantial development of Schuyler county 
stands P. Ilalsey Hawes, for to him there 
has come the attainment of a distinguished 
position in connection with the industrial 
concerns of Schuyler county, and his efforts 
have been so discerningly directed along 
well defined lines of labor that he seems to 
have realized at any one point of progress 
the full share of his possibilities for accom- 
plishment at that point. He is a man of dis- 



tinct and forceful individuality, of broad 
mentality and of marked business capacity, 
and thus he is proving an important factor in 
the development of the natural resources of 
the state, and at the same time he is active in 
promoting enterprises which add not alone to 
his individual prosperity but also advance 
the general welfare of the community in 
which he make? his home. 

Mr. Hawes is now secretary and treas- 
urer of the Union Salt Works of \Vatkins, 
and this enterprise owes its successful con- 
duct in no small degree to his efforts. He 
was born in the village of North Hector, 
November 28, 1857, and is a son of Joshua 
and Elizabeth (Halsey) Hawes. The 
father, a native of the town of Hector, was 
a son of Jonas and Rebecca (De IMunn) 
Hawes, and was reared upon a farm, but 
not wishing to follow the plow as a life work 
he turned his attention to merchandising, 
carrying on business at North Hector for a 
number of years. Subsequently he re- 
moved to the west and spent his last days in 
Madison, Wisconsin, where he died in 
1875. His wife, who bore the maiden name 
of Elizabeth Halsey, was born in Lodi, New 
York, September 30, 1835, and they were 
married on the 2d of July, 1856. Back 
through many generations can the ancestry 
of the Halsey family be traced. Mrs. 
Hawes was a daughter of Gilbert and Anna 
(Woodworth) Halsey. The former was 
born September i, 1795. and was married 
January 3, 1819, to Anna Woodworth, 
whose birth occurred March 8, 1800. He 
died in Hector, New York. July 17, 1870, 
while his wife passed away January 21, 
1886. His parents were Oliver and Sus- 
annah (Cooper) Halsey, the former born 
ATarch 25, 1869, in Southampton, Long Isl- 
and. He was a mason and farmer and died 




p. HALSEY HAWES 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



399 



at Loili. Xcw York. December 16, 1850, 
wile his wife, who was born in 1771, passed 
away in Lodi in 1SJ3. Oliver Halsey, a 
son of Dr. Silas and Sarah (Radley) Hal- 
sey. was born October 6, 1743. at South- 
ampton, Long Island, reckoning time by 
the old series. He died at Ovid. Xcw York. 
Xovember 19. 183J. after a long and suc- 
cessful professional career. He had en- 
gaged in the practice of medicine at South- 
ampton. Long Islantl, from 1764 until 
1776. when, having made himself obnoxi- 
ous to the British as a friend of the Ameri- 
can cause and of liberty, he was obliged to 
leave Long Island. In 1779, however, he 
returned and in 1787 was appointed by 
Governor Clinton to the position of sheriff 
of Suffolk county. In 1793 he removed to 
Ovid. Xew York, and after Onondaga 
county was set off from Herkimer county in 
1794. he served as supervisor and also rep- 
resented that district in the general as- 
sembly. In i8or he was a delegate to the 
convention which revised the constitution 
of the state, and in 1804 was appointed clerk 
of Seneca county, while the same year he 
was elected to the eleventh congress. In 
1807 he was elected state senator and two of 
his sons afterward became memljers of con- 
gress. Dr. Silas Halsey was married Xo- 
vember 8. 1764, to Sarah Radley, of Eliza- 
lieth. X^ew Jersey, who was born July 9, 
1745. and died August 25, 1778. On the 
i6th of X'ovemlier, 1780, he married Han- 
nah (Jones) Howell, and died December 4, 
1810, and on the 3d of December, 181 5. he 
wedded Abigail Howell. When he left 
Long Island in the spring of 1793, he was 
accompanied by eighteen people, members 
of his family. Proceeding by water they 
ascended the Hudson river to Albany, 
thence proceeding to Schenectady and at 

23 



that place took batteaux for rowing, trans- 
porting these on wheels. They thence pro- 
ceeded to Woods creek, where they again 
launched their batteaux and went down the 
creek to Oneida lake, proceeded across the 
lake and by the way of the Oneida and Sen- 
eca rivers to Seneca lake and on to their des- 
tination at Lodi. There were at least six 
I)laces where the boats had to be carried, at 
Albany. Little Falls, Rome, Jack's Rifts, 
Seneca Falls and Skogare. 

Dr. Silas Halsey was a son of Silas and 
Susannah (Howell) Halsey. the former 
liorn January 17. 1718. at Southampton, 
Long Island, while his death occurred at 
Ovid, Xew York, January 3. 1786, when he 
was eighty-six years of age. He was chair- 
man of the committee of safety at South- 
ampton. Long Island, at the breaking out of 
the Revolutionary war, and his parents were 
Daniel and Amy (Larison) Halsey, and the 
father was born August 31, 1669, while his 
death occurred at Wickagoguc, Long Isl- 
and. February 28. 1734. His parents were 
Daniel and Jemimah Halsey, the former 
bom about i(y^o. while his .death occurred 
in 1682. His parents were Thomas and 
I'hebe Halsey and this Thomas Halsey was 
the ancestor of otu" subject nine generations 
removed. He was born January 2. 1592, 
in England, and was resident of Xaples, 
Italy, in 162 1, while in 1^)37 he was num- 
bered ;miong tlie citizens 'of Lynn. Massa- 
chusetts. He became the owner of one 
hundred acres of land there, and in 1640 he 
became one of the founders of Southamp- 
ton, Long Island, the first English town in 
the state of X'^ew York. There was no other 
Halsey among the settlers there, and this 
Thomas Halsey served as a delegate to the 
general court of Hartford, Connecticut, in 
iC/^, while in 1670 he joined in the rcmon- 



400 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



strance. In 1676 lie was named in a patent 
of confirmation and in 1686 in Governor 
Dongan's patent. His first wife, Phebe, was 
murdered by the Pequod Indians in 1649, 
and on the 25th of July, 1660, he married 
^Irs. Anna Jones. Tims it will be seen that 
from a very early epoch in the development 
of American civilization the ancestors of P. 
Halsey Hawes have been identified with 
the history of this country. 

^Ir. Hawes of this review was reared to 
manhood in the town of Hector, where he 
pursued his education in the public schools, 
later Ijecoming a student in Cook Academy 
w here he Sjient two years, leaving that insti- 
tution in 1875. Soon afterward he came to 
Watkins where he entered the employ of C. S. 
frost as a clerk in a hotel, acting in that ca- 
pacity for two seasons, and was then clerk in 
the office of ^^r. Frost's agricultin"d works 
and foundry until 1881. In that year he be- 
came bookkeeiier for E. P.. Trenian & Com- 
pany, hardware dealers, with whom he re- 
mained until the fall of 1883, when he ac- 
cepted a similar position with the firm of 
Durland & Smith, remaining with them until 
the 1st of January, 1894. In the fall of 1893 
Mr. Hawes was elected county clerk of 
Schuyler county on the Republican ticket and 
served so capably and etiticiently during his 
term of three years that on its exi)iration he 
was re-elected for a second term. Toward 
the close of this term the 1^'nion Salt Com- 
])any was organized. While working for 
Durland & Company, Mr. Hawes and George 
S. Coon became interested in realty as owners 
of the post ofiice block and as liuilders and 
owners of the laundry and residence pro- 
perty here. They had ])roperty ijn both Jack- 
son street and Gem a\enue. inchuhng some 
houses and rdsi> unimproved lots. In 1896 



Mr. Hawes and Mr. Coon purcliased forty 
acres of the old Perry Bower property, and in 
1899 this was leased to the Seneca Lake Salt 
Company, in which he and his partner took 
stock. The property was developed, two 
salt wells being sunk and buildings erected, 
alter which the work of salt manufacture was 
carried on. In March, 1902, the lessees tool: 
possession because of the non-fulfillment of 
the terms of the lease and thus Messrs. Coon 
& Hawes became the owners. The L'nion 
Salt Company was then organized and be- 
came the owners of the rights of the Seneca 
Lake Salt Company and also purchased the 
property. E. P. S. Wright, of X'ew York 
city, becoming the president of the comi)any. 
in which capacity he is still serving, while 
yi. H. Arnot. of Elmira, is the vice president, 
P. H. Hawes secretary and treasurer, and 
the board of directors is composed of Mr. 
AV'right. Mr. Arnot. Mr. Hawes and Mr. 
Coon. Their plant has a capacity of one 
hundred and fifty tons of salt daily, and the 
enterprise is now a very important one, add- 
ing materially to the i)rosperity of the com- 
munity because of the em])loyment which it 
furnishes to many men in this locality. At 
the same time the business brings to the stock- 
b.olders a very gratifying income, their an- 
nual sales having now reached a large figure. 
On the 1st of January, i88r, in Watkins, 
Mr. Hawes was united in marriage to Miss 
Jennie McCreery, of this place. She was 
born at Castle P^inn in County Donegal, Ire- 
land, a daughter of John and Margaret Mc- 
Creery. Pier mother ilied in Ireland in about 
1868 and her father then crossed the Atlantic 
to America where Mrs. Hawes afterward 
joined him, making her home in Watkins. 
She now has three children, Edna E.. who 
was born September 7. 1881. and is a grad- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



401 



uate ui tlie W'alkins liii;li school of tlie class 
of 1901; Chester Arthur, born February 2. 
1S85. now a student at Mcrcershurg Acad- 
emy, Mercersburg', Pennsyh ania : and Mar- 
guerite L., bom April jg, 1889. All were 
born in Watkins at the family home at the 
corner of Tenth and Porter streets. 

yir. IJawes cast his first [jrcsidential bal- 
lot for James A. Garlield in 1880 and has al- 
\\a_\'s been an advocate of the Republican 
party, in the faith of which he was reared. 
He is now serving" as under sheriff under W. 
J. Tucker; He and liis wife hold memljer- 
ship in St. James Episcopal church, of which 
lie is a vestryman, and fraternally he is con- 
nected with Jefferson Lodge, Xo. 522, V. & 
.\. M., in which he has tilled all of the 
cliairs, including that of worshipful master, 
and has been representative to the grand 
lodge. He likewise belongs to \\'atkins 
Chapter, Xo. 182. R. .\. M., has been its rep- 
sentativeto the grand chapter in Alljany, and 
has served as its liigh priest. His Masonic 
relations liave still further continued, mak- 
ing him a member of St. Omer's Command- 
ery. Xo. 19, K. T., of Elmira, and in Ro- 
chester he became a member of Damascus 
Tem]ile of the Mystic Slirine, but is now a 
meml.ier of Kalurah Temple ;it r.inghamtoii. 
Xew Vork. He is to-day niunbered among 
the leading, intbiential and honored citizens 
of Schu\ler county. His connection with 
any undertaking insures a pros])erous out- 
come of the same, for it is nature to carry 
forward to successful completion whatever 
be undertakes. He has earned for himself 
an enviable reputation as a careful man of 
Inisiness and in his dealings is known for hi^ 
])ronipt and lionorahlc methods which have 
von the deser\cd and unlimited confidence 
of his fellow men. 



ALBERT CRAWPORD. 

Albert Crawford has passed the Psalm- 
ist's allotted si)an of three score years and 
ten, and has almost reached the eightieth 
milestone on life's journey. A venerable 
gentleman, he is honored and respected by 
all vvith whom he has come in contact, and 
his example is well worthy of emulation. 
I'or man\' vears he was an active factr)r in 
l-.usiness circles, representing agricultural 
and industrial interests. Xow he is living 
retirefl in the enjoyment of a well earned 
rest, making his home in the xillage of Wat- 
knis. Mr. Crawfort! is a native of X'ew 
^'ork, his birth having occurred in Trumans- 
burg, Tomjjkins county, on the "th of June, 
1824, his parents Ijeing (iilbert and Maria 
(Hill) Crawford. The father removed 
f'om Orange county, Xew \"ork, to Tomp- 
kins county at a very early day. and later 
settled in Chemung county. During the war 
of 1812 he responded to the country's call 
for aid, enlisting in Orange county and serv- 
ing until after the cessation of hostilities. 
\\'hen only seven years of age Albert Craw- 
ford left home and went to live with .Adam 
I'itzgerald, with whom he resided for many 
years. He liecame a resident of the town of 
\eteran, and there through the practical 
training which he received in the work of 
field and meadow he became a good farmer. 
I-or ihiriv years he carried on agricultural 
];ursuits, ])lacing his land under a high state 
of cultivation and transforming it into very 
rich fields which returned to him a golden 
tribute for the care and labor he bestowed 
upon them. At length he abandoned the 
pirjw and came to Watkins, where he turned 
bis attention to carpentering. I"or twenty 
vears he fallowed this i)ursuit and evidences 



402 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



of his lian.liwork are seen in many of the 
substantial buildings in this part of the 
county. He was an expert workman and 
therefore his services were always in demand. 
In 1875 he removed to Canandaigua, where 
he engaged in carpentering and contracting. 
At that place he purchased a lot and upon 
it he erected a good residence. All through, 
his life he has engaged to a greater or less 
extent in speculation, and his excellent 
judgment of realty values has made his in- 
vestments valual)le, returning to him a good 
income. In the year 1885 he again took up 
his abode in Watkins, where he has since 
lived a retired life in the enjoyment of the 
fruits of his former toil. 

On the i2thof July, 1843, Mr. Crawford 
was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth 
Root, a daughter of Matthew and Ilaiinah 
(Murray) Root, and a native of Connecticut. 
Tiiey became the parents of three children. 
Parna Adeiia died at the age of sixteen years. 
IMartha Delphine became the wife of Peter 
Miller, and died at the age of twenty-five 
years, leaving three children, Albert, Willie. 
and Jose])li. Hannah Marie, the youngest 
child of Mr. and Mrs. Crawford, is now the 
wife of George Hart, a resident of Canan- 
daigua. New York. In 1881 Mr. Crawford 
was called upon to mourn the loss of his 
wife, who died in the fall of that year. On 
the 25th of Marcli, 1885, he was again mar- 
lied, his second union being with Hannah C. 
Smith, the widow of Manning Brown, and 
a daughter of Thomas S. and Elizabeth 
(Coats) Smith. Mrs. Crawford was born 
in the town of Hector on the i6th of No- 
vember, 1S41, and is an estimal)le lady who 
shares with her husband in the iiigh regard in 
which he is universally held. Mr. Craw- 
ford is an earnest Republican, always giving 
his support to the men and measures of the 



party, and in his religious faith he is a Pres- 
byterian. His life has been a busy and useful 
one and throughout his entire career, in- 
tegrity and honor have been saiiait features 
in his life history. He is public spirited to 
an eminent degree, and through the long 
years of his residence in this county he has 
given his support to whatever is calculated 
to promote the general welfare. 



CHARLES NATHANIEL J.ACKSON. 

Charles Nathaniel Jackson, a well 
known resident of Watkins, was born in 
Logan, in the town of Hector, this county, 
on the 2(1 of November, 1862, being one of 
liie six children of James Morrison and 
Roxanna (Mathews) Jackson. His pa- 
ternal ancestors were among the early 
colonists of America, and he is a direct 
descendant of General Stonewall Jackson, of 
the southern Confederacy. His father was 
a painter by trade and also dealt in sheep and 
horses, carrying on a good business in tliat 
way. He married Roxanna Mathews, who 
belonged to a pioneer family of this section 
of New York, her parents having located 
here when the country was wild and unim- 
proved. Six children were born of this 
union, three sons and three daughters, name- 
ly : George J. ; James, deceased ; Charles 
X.ithaniel ; Elvira Frances, wife of Jacob 
Compton ; ^Irs. Alice Amelia Olin; and 
Helen M., wife of Henry Bullard. When 
the subject of this review was about four or 
fixe years of age, the mother suffered from an 
attack of smallpox, but none of the otlier 
members of the family became affected with 
the contagion. .Mxiut 1872 the father, who 
is now deceased, removed with his family 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



403 



from what is known as tlie Block school 
house to the Wesley Whitman farm. "The 
same spring the mother became ill and died 
t\vo weeks before our subject attained his 
eleventh year. For three or four years 
thereafter iiis sister .Mice acted as house- 
keeper and then the family was broken up. 

-Mr. Jackson pursued his education in the 
common schools until fifteen years of age, 
and through the period of his youth worked 
upon the home farm. Early thrown upon 
his own resources he had to pro\ide a liv- 
ing for himself, and whatever success he has 
achieved has come to him because of a life 
of industry. He worked by the month for 
sometime and since 1890 he has conducted 
a shop of his own, manufacturing shoes and 
doing general repairing, making a specialty 
of bicycles. 

Mr. Jackson has been twice married. 
When twenty-si.x years of age he wedded 
Katie McCarrick, of Rig Flats, and they be- 
came the parents of two sons, one of wiioin 
died in infancy, while the other, Clarence 
Howard, is now living at the age of thirteen 
years. Mrs. Jackson was a daughter of John 
ilcCarrick, wIki. in 1861, joined the Union 
army as a snare drummer, and went to the 
south, where he died. His wife, Mrs. P>etsey 
McCarrick, survived him until 1901. when 
she, too, i)assed away lier <lcatii being oc- 
casioned by a stroke of paralysis when she 
was seventy-seven years of age. In 1897 
Mrs. Jackson became ill with consumption 
and soon departed this life and a year and a 
half later Mr. Jackson was again married in 
Watkins, his second union being with Ella 
Belle Thompson, one of the two daughters of 
Ed and .\my Th.ompson. Mrs. Jackson is a 
lady of culture and refinement who has suc- 
cessfully engaged in teaching music and who 
at the time of her marriage was twenty- 



seven years of age. They now ha\e one 
child, Edgar, who is three years of age, and 
they also lost an infant at the age of five 
^veeks. Mr. an.d Mrs. Jackson have many 
warm friends in the community, among the 
best class of citizens, and their own home is 
noted for its generous and free-hearted hos- 
])itality. In ])olitics he is a Repul)lican and 
has always lived an upright lite, so that he 
enjoys the confidence and good will of all 
with whom he has Ijeen associated. 



TOHX FOLEY. 



Jolin Foley, who is now living retired in 
Watkins, was born in County Cork, Ireland, 
June 24, 1833, and is a son of Roger and Ab- 
bie (Rhonan) Foley. When a youth of 
eighteen years lie crossed the Atlantic to 
America, landing in 1851. He then com- 
menced work in Plainfield. where he was em- 
ployed for two months after which he secured 
a position near Syracu.se, remaining there for 
one year. He next went to Seneca Falls, 
Xew ^'ork, an<l afterward established his 
home in Syracuse, where he remained for 
tiiree years. Subseiiuently he began working 
oii a farm near Blooming. Sullivan county, 
Xc.v \'i)rk, whence he removed to Sidney, 
Delaware county, .\fter living for a time 
in Broome county, he again went to Seneca 
Falls, and in the year 1870 he came to W^at- 
kins, where he has since resided. 

On the 28th of April, 1860. Mr. Foley 
was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
Hughes, who was born December 25, 1839, 
and they became the parents of the following 
children: Daniel, the eldest, bom July 18, 
iSfir, married Sabina McCann and resides 
in Cle'.'eland, Ohio. Their children are John, 



404 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Roger and Daniel. Margaret Ann. the sec- 
ond of the family. \va.s born Marcli 9. 1S63, 
and i.s tlie w iie of John Nicholson, a resident 
of Youngstown, Ohio, by whom she has one 
child. John. The third member of the Foley 
family is John, who was iiorn January 19, 
1865, and is now an invalid. Johanna, born 
Decemljer 19, 1867, became the wife of Will- 
iam Morran, a resident of W'atkins, and died 
on the 28lh of January, 1899, leaving two 
children, ]\Iargaretta and Louisa. Mary, 
born October 8, 1869, became the wife of 
Burton Ray, a resident of Xew York, and 
they have two children, Edna and Marie. 
Roger, born January 22, 1871, is a resident 
of Greenville, Pennsylvania. He married 
Grace L'lster. by whom he has three children : 
i\Iarie, William and Thomas. Catherine, 
born May 28, 1873, f''^'^ o" '^'i^ same date. 
Catherine, born May 2S. 1874. is the wife 
of William Dnnlavy, a resident of Albin, 
Erie count}-, Pennsylvania. Their children 
Arc Willie. Irene, Marion and Pauline. Jer- 
emiah, born May 11, 1875, resides in 
Youngstown, Ohio. Agnes, born May 3, 
3878. is the wife of Patrick Kelley. who is 
em])]oyed as a ]inddler in the iron works at 
Greenville, Pemisylvania. Xellie, born Feb- 
ruary 22, 1880, lives with her sister in Green- 
ville, Pennsylvania. 

Mrs. Iw)ley, the mother of this family, 
was a daughter of Joseph and Margaret 
(Hughes) Huglies, who though of the same 
name, were not related in ties of blood prior 
to their marriage. They were residents of 
County Lonlh, Ireland, and had four chil- 
dren: John, now deceased; Bridget: Cath- 
erine; and Mary. Mrs. Iviley is a lady of 
many estimable (lunlities and is today a fine 
picture of health, having never been under 
the care of a physician in her life. She has 
Euccessfullv renred a large f.-imilv of chil- 



dren, to wiiom she has been a lo\ing and ten- 
der mother. She now has in her charge two 
grandchildren, whom she is rearing and 
who have made their home with her for 
ten years. They are bright little girls, pos- 
sessed of many fine qualities, and are aged 
ten and eight years resi)ectively. Mr. ami 
I\Irs. Foley are both devout members f)f the 
Catholic church, of which their family are 
also comnumicants. Politically Mr. Foley 
votes independently, supporting the men 
whom he believes best cpialified iov office. 
He has long been identified with the history 
of Watkins and has been associated with va- 
rious enterprises. Having followed several 
different vocations, he has Ijecome thorough- 
ly competent to carry on any line of work, 
and has gained an extensive mechanical 
knowledge so that in. difficult tmdertakings 
he is as much at home as if he had served an 
fipprentice.^iiip to m;iny trades. 



JAMES A. H.\DDOCK. 

James .\. Haddock is now practically 
living retired, although he supervises the 
conduct of his farm. He makes his home in 
Montour b'alls, where he has lived for thirty 
years. He was born on liic 1st of January, 
1825, and is a son of .Anthony B. Haddock, 
who was a native of Montgomery county, 
Xew York, born about 1802. The mother 
bore the maiden name of Mary A. Voor- 
hees, and her birth occurred in 1812. Their 
only child was James .\. Haddock, of this 
review. After lea\ing the common schools 
our subject followed wool carding and cloth 
dressing for three years, at the end of which 
lime he turned his attention to the milling 
ijusiness, »\hich he carried on with a grati- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



405 



fying degree of success for three years, re- 
ceiving a lilieral i)atronage because of tlie 
excellent quality of the products of his mill. 

On the 13th of January, 1850, he sought 
as a companion and helpmate for life's jour- 
ney, and was united in marriage to Miss 
Sarah Cross, of Reading Center, New York, 
who was born on the 3d of Juno. i83[. 1 ler 
father. Joshua Cross, was a native of Greene 
county, New York, born July 13, 1790, and 
on the 4th of ]\Iarch, 181 3. he was united in 
marriage to ^liss Keziah Turk, whose birth 
occurred in the town of Green, Greene 
county, on the 27th of April, 1796. Their 
marriage was blessed witii seven children: 
lames. Nehemiah, John, Maria, Mary and 
Susan, all deceased ; and Sarah. The home 
of Mr. and Mrs. lladtlock has been blessed 
with one daughter. Pearl, who still resides 
with her parents. She is the wife of W. 11. 
Foster, who is employed in the bridge works 
in Montour Falls. 

For some time Mr. Haddock made his 
home in ^^'atkins, New York, but in 1881 
removed from that place to Montour I'alls 
and purchased the farm upon which he is 
now residing. .\t the time of the Civil war 
he WPS an advocate of the L'nion cause, and 
on the 8th of September, 1864, he offered 
his services to the government, enli.sting un- 
der the comnian.d of Captain Pearson, of 
Company D. One Hundred and Seventy- 
ninth Regiment of Volunteers. He thus 
served until the close of the war and received 
an honorable di.<charge on the J8th of June. 
1865. Since that time, his health having be- 
come impaired during his military service, 
he has been urable to work, but be super- 
vises the management of his property inter- 
ests. He is a man of genuine worth, of 
strong princi])les and upright conduct. He 
belongs to the Methodist church and in his 



pfilitical \iews he is a Prohibitionist, strongly 
endorsing the ])arty which embodies his 
views on the temperance question. His 
temperance anti church work indicate that he 
is deeply interested in everytliing pertaining 
to the welfare and uplifting of his fellow 
men, and his own example is in many 
respects well worthy of emulation. 



BENJAMIN RLACKISTO.X HOLLETT. 

No history of Schuyler county would be 
complete without mention of Mr. Hollett, 
who is the oldest citizen within its borders. 
He is now living at W'atkins at the age of 
ninety-one years, liis birth having occurred 
in the town of Seneca. Ontario county, New 
York, February 17, 181 r. His father. Pere- 
grine Hollett, removed to what is now the 
town of Orange. Schuyler county, but was 
then the town of Jersey, Steuben county. A 
native of Delaware, lie was there reared, and 
after attaining his majority he was married 
in that state to Frances Blackiston. also a 
native of Pelavvare. Before they started for 
New '^'ork their first child was born. In 
1802, traveling by wagon, they came to this 
state, locating first in the town of Ovid, 
Seneca countv. where thcv purchased a farm. 
He was in such poor health at the time of 
his arrival that he had to emi)loy a man to 
drive the team and another faiuily accom- 
])anied the Holletts on their emigration to 
assist them in the journey. After a few 
\ears. however. Mr. Hollett fully recovered 
Ins he.'dtbi. so much so that he was able to 
ride a circuit of four hundred miles from the 
town of Reading. Schuyler county, to Lake 
Ontario. He had Ijecome a Methodist 
preacher .and it took liini six weeks upon this 



4o6 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



circuit, during which time lie preached every 
(lay. Before he became an active worker in 
liie ministry he sold his farm and removed 
to the town of Seneca, Ontario county, and 
it was while the family were there th;it the 
subject of this review was born. After three 
years devoted to active ministerial work 
Mr. Hollett became a local preacher, 
and in connection with his labors in be- 
half of the gospel he also engaged in 
farming for some years. Subsequently he 
turned his attention to merchandising in the 
\illage of Gorhani, wliere he remained for 
a short time and was then o\ercome by 
financial disaster because of the dishonesty 
of some neighl)or he had trusted. At that 
time he took up his abode in the midst of the 
forest in the town of Orange, Schuyler 
county, then tlie town of Jersey, Steuben 
county, and had to clear the land in order to 
engage in farming. When he had remained 
at that place for about seven years, during 
which time the mother died and the children 
became scattered, he returned to Gorham, 
where he was again married, and in the 
course of years he retrieved his lost posses- 
sions, becoming again in good financial cir- 
cumstances. He continued to preach as long 
as his lieallh and strength permitted, and 
when about eighty years of age he passed 
away. 

Benjamin B. Hollett of this review re- 
mained at home until his mother's death 
an<l w lien twenty-one years of age he secured 
work as a farm hand at ten dollars per 
month, with the understanding that he was 
to take half of his pay in live stock. He 
used a part of his earnings in paying his 
tuition in school. The next year he worked 
for eight months at eleven dollars per month 
and with the proceeds of his lalx)r he further 
pursued his studies in the academy at I'enn 



Yan, where he was fitted for teaching, a 
]irofession which he followed through six 
successi\-e winters, during w hicli time he was 
paid eighteen dollars per month for his ser- 
\ices, but had to board himself. In the sum- 
mer months he engaged in farming upon 
land which he had leased. ' 

When twenty-five years of age Mr. Hol- 
lett was married in Benton, Yates county, 
New Y'ork, October 25. 1835, to Mrs. Bath- 
sheba Vook, nee Payne. There was one 
child by that marriage, Hannah Jennie, who 
became the wife of Hubert Bushnell and re- 
sides in Cortlantl, Xew York. Mrs. Hollett 
(lied in 1865 in the town of Reading, and in 
1866 Mr. Hollett was again married, his sec- 
ond union Ijeing with Mrs. Olive Brown, 
nee Tawner, of Pennsylvania. He purchased 
a place in the to\Mi of Bath, Steuben county, 
Init after living there for a short time bought 
a farm on the banks of Lake Seneca, in what 
was then Steuben county, but is now Schuy- 
ler county. Ii\iiig tiicre for twenty-seven 
years. After his second marriage, however, 
he leased his farm, living in the village of 
Menrotin, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, in 
a house belonging to his wife, for seventeen 
years. His jiroperty was sold in 1S72 and 
in 1883 he became a resident of Watkins. 
his present home. For si.x years his wife 
has been an invalid. 

Mr. Hollett was a Free Soil Democrat 
and in 1832 cast his first vote supporting 
.Andrew Jackson. In 1856 he voted for Bu- 
ciianan. but afterward became a Republican, 
supporting Lincoln in i860. For nine years 
he served as assessor of the town of Reading, 
refused to become a justice of the peace, but 
in 1864 was supervisor of the town of Read- 
ing and as such had to assist in raising the 
quota for the town.ship, thus helping to keep 
iifi the draft. In Pennsvlvania he had been 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



407 



three times elected justice of tlie peace, each 
term covering five years, but resigning be- 
fore tlie expiration of liis last term. He 
served for thirteen years altogether and dur- 
ing that time no decision which he rendered 
was ever reversed. When twenty-one years 
of age he became a memljcr of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, of which he has since been 
a consistent and faithful follower, filling all 
of the official positions. He was for four- 
teen years Sunday-school superintendent and 
now has in his possession a fine gold headed 
cane which was presented to him by his 
school. He became a member of the Masonic 
fraternity in W'alkins in 1S63, has ever been 
an exemplary representative of the craft, 
while he also became a member of the Odd 
Fellows Society in Pennsylvania, filling all 
of its chairs, but has not been actively con- 
nected with the organization since coming 
to Watkins. At the age of eighteen Mr. 
Hollett signed the temperance pledge and has 
ever faithfully lived up to it, being a strong 
temperance man. He is now hale and 
hearty at the age of ninety-two years^ able to 
walk a mile or more, possessing the vigor 
of a man of much younger years. Nature 
is kind to those who abuse not her laws, and 
Mr. Hollett has ever lived in harmony with 
the great principles of nature and of right- 
eous living. 



HIRAM S. \'EDDER. 

Hiram .S. \'eddcr is the owner of the 
Willowdale farm and creamery and is a suc- 
cessful business man. well known in Schuyler 
county, his home being in Montour Falls. 
He was born in the town of Norway, Herki- 
mer comity. New York, March 29, 1S45, 
and is a son of Sears Rolin Vedder, a nati\e 



of the same county, where he was Iwrn in 
1815. The latter received a very limited 
education in the schcK)ls of that early day, 
and as his people lived on the frontier, he 
was reared amid prii'nitive surroundings, his 
liome being of logs with a puncheon floor, 
an old fashinned fire-place and nuid and stick 
chimney. During his boyhood he often rode 
to mill on horseback with a bag of wheat 
thrown across the horse and as the distance 
was great it required three days to make the 
trip. He assisted his father in clearing away 
the heavy timber which covered the farm 
and also aided in the arduous task of break- 
ing the land for cultivation. He was thus 
employed until he reached manhood, when 
ho was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. 
Smith. \\ Iio was born in Salisbury, Herkimer 
county. New York, about 1S18, and was left 
an orphan when quite young. They became 
the parents of six children, namely: James, 
the eldest died at the age of seven years. 
Hiram Smith, of this review, is the next in 
order of birth. Abram W. is still living on 
the old homestead in Herkimer county. 
Henry died in August, 1902, at the age of 
fifty-three years. Mary Elizabeth married 
N. Ernest W'ilmot, a native of Wales, who 
was formerly a resident of Norway, New 
^Ork, but is now Ji\ing in Newport, this 
slate. Myron, the youngest of the family, 
died at the age of six nionths. 'J'hroughout 
his active business life the father followed 
farming. He was a man of iron will and 
positive character, never swerving from 
what he believed to be right. In settling 
up his estate it was found that he owed but 
three flollars, a fact which showed that he 
never contracted debts, and by all he was 
considered one of the most honorable and 
reliable citizens of his community. 1 Ic snp- 
]>iirted the Repulilican party up to within the 



408 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



last two years of his life, when he voted the 
Democratic ticket. Religiously both he and 
his wife were earnest and consistent mem- 
bers of the Freewill Baptist church. She 
dietl when about filty-li\e years of age, but 
he had reached the ripe old age of eighty-five 
years at the time of his death. 

The subject of this sketch ol)tained a 
common school education, completing his 
studies at the age of fifteen years, after which 
he gave his services to his father, witli w horn 
he remained until he attained his majority. 
He then began work for Chester Kent, of 
Remsen, Oneida county. New York, receiv- 
ing thirty dollars jier month for his services, 
and with Mr. Kent he remained for nine 
months, after which he returned to his fa- 
ther's employ. Three months passed and 
he then entered into business relations with 
the firm of Watkins & W'elden, who were 
engaged in merchandising at Prospect, Onei- 
da county. Mr. Vedder there remained for 
eight nicinths. and, after again wnrking for 
his father for four months, he once more 
entered the employ of Chester Kent, with 
whom he continued for nine months. 

It was about this time that Mr. Vedder 
was marrie-1 on the 14th of January, 1869, 
to Miss Electa Young, who was born in the 
town of Rathlxme, Steuben coimty. X^ew 
York, August 9, 1844. Her father, Nathan 
T. Young, was born in Voluntown, Rhode 
Island, February 12, 181 5, and was a son of 
Northru]) and Olive (Bly) ^'oung. who re- 
moved from that state to Farmington. Penn- 
sylvania, where they spent their last days. 
The father was a farmer by occupation and 
a soldier of the war of 181 2, enlisting from 
Rhode Island. He was born in that state 
in 1790 and died in .April, 1857, while his 
■wife was born there in 1796 and died Oc- 
tober 7, 1883. She was an e.xpcrt spinner 



and cloth weaver, doing all her work in the 
Ijrimitive manner of the times, such as baking 
the Johnnie cake on a board in front of the 
open fire-place. Occasionally she made trips 
"down county" and would always ride horse- 
back. She was the mother of nine children, 
namely: Mary, who fell in a well and was 
drowned; Nathan T., the father of Mrs. 
\"edder ; Haimah, who married Abel Everts ; 
Xancy. who married Justus Leonard; Rob- 
ert; Xorthrun. wlio was killed bv bush- 
whackers in Kansas ; Hazzard, who lives in 
I'armington, Pennsylvania ; Deborah, wife of 
James Preston ; and Esther, who married 
Alanson Bucklee. Of this family only Haz- 
zard and Deborah are now living. At the 
age of fourteen years Nathan T. Young was 
lx)und out to learn the blacksmith's trade 
and scrxed a seven years' apprenticeship, 
after which he continued to follow that oc- 
cupation throughout life. For thirty-six 
years he made his home in Rathlx)ne, Steu- 
l>en coimty, X'ew AOrk, where he died May 
13. 1878. He became a leading and influen- 
tial citizen of that community and for ten 
years acceptably filled the ofiice of justice of 
the peace. He was married in Pennsylvania 
to Miss Lucy Mianda Crandall, who was 
I)orn in Lindley, Steuben county. New York, 
April 12. 1818, a daut^hter of P.irkcr and 
Lucy (Butler) Crandall. Mrs. Crandall 
was the second in order of birth in a family 
of eight children, the others being Marie, 
\\ifc of Simuei Piieanix, now decease<l; 
[•".leda. wife of Josiah Loveland ; Oren ; 
Maryett, wife of Northrup Young; Char- 
lotte, wife of Hiram Stevens; Matilda, wife 
of a Mr. Brace; and Albert Cook. To Mr. 
and Mrs. A'oung were born eight chililrcn, 
as follows: Northru]). who was a meml)er 
of the Twenty-third Xew ^'ork Regiment 
during the Civil war and is now a merchant 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



409 



and postmaster of Ratliljoiie ; Cliarlottc, wife 
of Henian Clark; Electa L., wife of our sub- 
ject ; Sidney, a resident of Osceola, Tioga 
county, Pennsylvania ; Florence, who died 
November 17. 1S69; Lucy IVTaria, who died 
April 6, 1875; Morris, a resident of Wells- 
Inirsj. Xew ^'ork; and George, of Aldcrson, 
Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Vedder has 
ijeen blessed with one son, Ralph C, who 
was lx)rn Decemlier 10. 1870. He married 
Nellie Hamm and they have two children: 
Earl Merton, born September 25, 1896; and 
LjTin Lawrence, born Septemljer 7, 1899. 
Mrs. Nellie Vedder was bom Octoljer 19, 
1874. and is a daughter of Lewis J. and 
Mary (Wilt) Hamm. Her paternal grand- 
father, Paul Hamm. was born in Limbach. 
Rhenish, Bavaria, (iermany, April 8. 1817. 
and there married Margaret Bronstater, who 
is still living, but he died in April, 1890. 
About 1850 they came to America and set- 
tled in the town of Ohio, Herkimer county, 
New York, where Mr. Hamm followed 
farming. Their children were Catharine, 
wife of John Dagenkolb; Lewis J., father of 
Mrs. Nellie Vedder; Mary, wife of Roljcrt 
McVoy: Anna, wife of Rudolph Haas; 
Amelia, wife of (ieorge Rank ; and three who 
flied in Germany. Lewis J. Hamm was born 
in Limbach, Rhenisli, Bavaria, Germany, 
and was about two years old when he ac- 
companied his parents on their emigration 
to the new world. He learned the stone- 
mason's trade, which he !ias made his life 
work, and has held the office of justice of 
the peace in Herkimer county for many 
years. He married Mary Wilt, who was 
born in Manhcim. kingdom of Baden, Ger- 
many, July 9, 1850, and was also two years 
old when she came to .\merica with her 
parents, \^'illianl and Barbara ( Koebler) 



Wilt, being the first of the Wilt family to 
ci'oss the Atlantic. They settled in the town 
of Russia, Herkimer county. Xew York, and 
were farming peo])lc. William Wilt was 
born in 1820 and died in 1898, while his 
wife was born in 1825 and died in July, 
1890. They had twelve children, namely: 
Anthony; Phillip; William; Elizabeth, wife 
of Thomas Spring; Jerome; Mary, wife of 
Lewis J. Hamm : Carrie, wife of Anthony 
Crossway; DeKin; .\mclia, wife of John 
Schemerhorn ; Rose, wife of Charles Sax- 
ton ; l-Vederick ; and Charles. L'nto Lewis 
J. and Mary (Wilt) Hamm' were born 
three children : Irena, wife of Charles Sny- 
der; Nellie, wile of Ralph C. Vedder; and 
Benjamin Franklin. 

After his marriage Hiram C. Vedder 
located in the town of Russia. Herkimer 
county, where he engaged in the operation 
of a rented farm from March, 1869, until the 
5th of January, 1870, when he purchased a 
farm in the town of Norway, the same coun- 
ty', making his home thereon for twenty- 
si.x years. During one year of that time he 
served as foreman for Chester Kent, receiv- 
ing five hundred dollars in compensation for 
his services. He also launched out in other 
business ventures, becoming one of the rep- 
resentative agents of the Deering Harvesting 
Machine Company, with which he was iden- 
tified for about five years, selling machines 
in the vicinity of his home. Besides this he 
handled and sold many tons of improved 
phosphate fertilizers and in this way ma- 
terially added to his income. Being ener- 
getic, honest and always giving his custom- 
ers the benefit of the best goods, he gnined 
a reputation in the business world that was 
far reaching. 

On selling his proj^erty in Herkimer 
cmuity, Mr. Yediler purchased the farm near 



4IO 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Montour Falls, where he now lives, compris- 
ing one hundred and six acres of rich and 
arable land, on which he is now extensively 
engaged in the dairy business. He owns a 
good creamery and the W'illowdale farm 
and creamery are now well known, enjoying 
a well merited reputation. He keeps four- 
teen cows and the butter from his creamer\- 
commands the highest market price because 
of its excellence. Everything about his place 
is a model of neatness, cleanliness and system 
and in his business affairs he has been en- 
ergetic, reliable and determined, qualities 
which always insure success. His farm is 
pleasantly located on the southern border of 
Montour Falls, where he has a very pretty 
modern residence and good farm buildings. 
Politically ]Mr. Vedder endorses the princi- 
ples of the Republican party, and his relig- 
ious faith is indicated by his membership 
in the Baptist church. He never uses tobac- 
co or liquor in any form and in all respects 
his life is an exemplary one. 



CHARLES A. SLOAXE. 

Charles A. Sloane, who is engaged in 
farming in the town of Montour, has been 
a resident of Schuyler county for nearly 
thirty years and has become well and favor- 
ably known. He is a native of Herkimer 
county, born May 19. 1850, and is a son of 
Tames K. and Louisa (Reno) Sloane, the 
former a native of Massachusetts and the 
latter of Otsego county, Xew Vork. James 
Sloane, the grandfather of our subject, was 
a prominent physician of Otsego county, and 
in the early days was known as one of the 
most skillful physicians of that county, 
where he practiced for many years and w here 



his death occurred. In early life the lather 
learned the currier's trade, but abandoned 
that and engaged in the foundry business at 
Springfield Center, Otsego county. Previ- 
ous to this time, however, he iocnted in Her- 
kimer county, where his children were born 
and where his wife died. They were the 
parents of six children, four daughters and 
two sons, of whom Charles A. was the 
youngest. His mother died when he was 
but two years old. The father was a well 
educated man and owned a large library, 
which he made use of as opportunity af- 
forded him. Although he never accepted 
office, he was quite prominent in public af- 
fairs. His old store building still stands in 
Springfield Center and is known as Sloane's 
block. 

In 1 86 1, when the first call was made for 
^(Jlunteers in defense of the L'nion. James 
K. Sloane sacrificed his interests in his Inisi- 
ness and responded to the first call, enlisting 
ill the Seventy-sixth New York Infantry, 
with which he remained. After serving two 
years — his full time — he started home and 
reached Albany just as Lee made his raid 
into Pennsylvania. A call was then made 
for three months men and he again enlistetl. 
returning to the front just in time to take 
part in the battle of Gettysburg, where he 
was wounded. \\'hile in the two years 
service he was wounded at the battle of An- 
tietam and also in another engagement. At 
the close of his three months service he was 
again mustered out and started home. On 
rc.'iching Alljany the second time, he again 
enlisted for three years or until the close of 
the war. Returning to the front he was 
killed in the spring of 1865, at the battle of 
Fort Fisher, and his grave, like thousands 
• f other brave soldiers, is marked "un- 
known." 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



411 



Tlie subject of this review spent his boy- 
liodd (lays ill liis lionie in Springfield Centei' 
v.ud until the death of his fatlier attended 
the c<j!nnion schools and academy at that 
])iace. When seventeen years of age he en- 
tered a shop to learn the trade of carriage 
n'oning with a man named Durfce, witii 
whom he remained one year, and then went 
to Fulton county and entered the carriage 
shop of Moses L. Stockley, who married his 
sister Annie. He remained with 'Sir. Stock- 
ley six years. 

On June 18, 1873, Mr. Sloane was 
united in marriage with Annie Xewton, a 
daughter of James Xewton. Her father was 
an extensi\e manufacturer of gloves at 
Johnstown, Xew York, where he was a 
prominent citizen. Though advanced in 
years he is a man of unusual talent, and for 
a number of years he made his home witli 
Mr. Sloane. Mrs. Sloane is an only daugh- 
ter and is a highly educated und refined lady, 
a graduate of the Young Ladies' Seminary 
at Schenectady. By thrs union Mr. and Mrs. 
Sloane have become the parents of two sons : 
James M., a graduate of the Military Acad- 
emy of Aurora, Xew York ; and Charles A. 

After his marriage Mr. Sloane entered 
into partnership with his father-in-law in the 
glove manufacturing business and was the 
first to successfully introduce the hog-skin 
glove. Soon after entering into the busi- 
ness he went on the road in the interests of 
the firm, tra\eling in Pennsylvania, Ver- 
mont, Xew York, Ohio and other states, and 
continued to be thus occupied for ten years, 
when, on account of the advanced age of his 
father-in-law, he quit the business and en- 
tered the employ of D. McCarthy & Son, of 
Syracuse, in the dry-goods trade, traveling 
for them six years, principally in Xew York 
and Pennsylvania. In 1877 our subject re- 



moved to Havana, now Montour Palls, 
which was his h(jme until 1893, when he 
bought his present farm of eighty acres, to 
which they moved, and wtiere he has since 
resided, engaged in general farming and 
market gardening on a large scale, raising 
his products and shipping in car-load lots. 
He also gives considerable attention to the 
dairy business, furnishing butter to private 
families. 

In politics ^Ir. Sloane has been an active 
Republican since attaining 'lis majority and 
was elected to the assembly from Schuyler 
county, and served one term. From lx)yhood 
he has lieen a member of the Presbyterian 
ciiurch, of which hotly his wife is also a 
member. He has been a Master Mason 
since twent}-one years of age, holding mem- 
bership with Kenneyetto Lodge, Xo. 599, at 
Eroadalbin, X'^ew York. 



SAMUEL M. COOX. 

Among the native sons of the Empire 
state now representing its agricultural in- 
terests is numbered Samuel M. Coon, who i:i 
engaged in farming in Orange township, 
Schuyler county, his home being in Mon- 
terey. He was born on the ^th of Xovem- 
ber, 1 832. in the town of Milo. Yates county, 
Xew York, and conies of one of the old fam- 
ilies of that state. His father. Samuel Coon, 
Sr.. was born in Poughkeepsie, this state, 
and was united in marriage to Miss Susan 
Morris, a native of Cherry Valley, Xew 
York. They became the parents of eight 
ch.ildren, namely : Keziah, Sarah, Abner, 
C\nthia, Mary, Morris and Moses, all of 
whom have passed away ; and Srunuel, who is 
the only living member of the family. 



412 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



In his parents" home Mr. Coon spent 
the (lays of his boyhood and youth and at 
tlie usual age he began the mastery of the 
common branches of Enghsh learning in the 
public schools, pursuing his studies until 
nineteen years of age. He afterward began 
earning his own living, following the occu- 
l^ation of farming and also engaging in 
lumbering. His attention was devoted to 
these two pursuits until the 2ist of ^klarch, 
1862, when he joined the Union army, his 
patriotic spirit having been aroused by the 
continued attempt of the south to overthrow 
the national government. He joined Com- 
pany C, of the Fourteenth United States In- 
fantrv, unrler the command of Captain Law- 
rence and served for three years, participat- 
ing in many important engagements, in- 
cluding the battles of Fredericksburg, Chan- 
cellorsville, Gettysburg, Cold Harlxir, Wil- 
derness, Weldon Railroad. Hatchie's Rui\ 
and in front of Petersburg and many skir- 
mishes. When his term of service had ex- 
pired he received an honorable discharge and 
returned to his home. 

On the 4th of July of the following year. 
— 1866 — Mr. Coon celebrated his marriage 
to Miss Augusta Bump, a daughter of Isaac 
and Mary (Daymoulh) Bump, the former 
a native of Schuyler county. The union of 
our subject and his wife has been blessed 
with three children. Frank J.. Daniel B. and 
Maud. 

Mr. and Mrs. Coon began their tlomes- 
tic life in Monterey and afterward removed 
to Dundee, Init later they returned to Mon- 
terey, where they have since resided, his at- 
tention being gi\en in undi\ided manner to 
the cultivation and improvement of his farm, 
whose highly developed fields now yield to 
him a golden harvest as the annual reward, 
of his labors. Mr. and Mrs. Coon hold 



membership in the Methodist Episcopal 
church and are deeply interested in its work 
and the extension of its intlucnce. He votes 
with the Republican party, which stood by 
the Union in the dark days of the Civil war 
and has ever ijeen the defender of American, 
interests against foreign powers and the pro- 
tection of American industries. In matters 
of citizenship he has ever been loyal and pro- 
gressive, supporting all measures which con- 
tribute to the general advancement of social, 
material, intellectual and moral worth. 



RICHARD GRAVES. 

For more than a third of a century Rich- 
ard Graves has resided continuously in. 
Odessa and he is one of the native born 
citizens of this place. His natal day was De- 
cember 2, 1843. ^^ hen aljout si.x ycu^s of 
age he entered the public schools and after 
acquiring his education he became connected 
uith the lumber business, which he followed 
for several years, but after the outbreak of 
the Civil war he put aside all business and 
] ersonal considerations in order to respond 
to his country's call for aid. enlisting in the 
year 1863. He joined the boys in blue of 
tl'.e One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania 
Infantry and was altogether in the army for 
three years, being for one year in the infantry 
service and two years in the navy. Ever 
loyal to the old flag and the cause it repre- 
sented he faithfully dischargeil his duties in 
whatever jtosition he was placed. Return- 
ing from the army in 1866 Mr. Graves has 
since made his home in Odessa and is well- 
known here, having a wide acquaintance, 
many of whom have known him from his 
lM)yh(H)d days uown to the present. Mr. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



413 



Graves was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
Humphrey and lliey now have one child, 
Richard. P>i)th our subject and his wife 
liave many friends in Odessa and are well- 
laiown people here. 



OBADIAH BEACH. . 

Oba(hah Beach, late of Tyrone, Xew 
York, was Iwni at Marcellus. Onondaga 
county, this state, January 8, 1804, and was 
one of the pioneers of Tyrone, coming to 
that town with his father's family in 1814. 
He was the sixth in line of descent from 
Jolm jjcach. one of the early Pilgrims, who 
settled first in Xew Haven. Connecticut, 
a!x)ut 1640, and later li\ed in Stratford and 
\\'allingford. tliat state. According to 
church records and municipal documents, 
compiled by Joseph Beach, of Cheshire, Con- 
necticut, wlio witii Moses Y. Beach, pub- 
lished the Xew York Sun, the following is 
the genealog}- of the family: John Beach, 
the pilgrim, hail eleven children, the fifth in 
order of birth being Xathaniel, who married 
Sarah I'orter. Of their ten children, the 
fourth was Josiah lieacli. who was born Au- 
gust 18, 1694. and married Patience Xichols. 
The youngest of their seven children was 
Matthew, who was b<>ni May, 18, 1742. and 
married Martha Xichols. Their fourth 
child. Stiles ricach. was born June 3. 1770, 
and married Mahitabel I'.rown, Obadiah 
Beach, of this review, being the sixth in their 
family of nine children, .\mong the de- 
scendants of John Beach uere Joseph Beach 
and Moses V. i'cacr.. mentioned abo\c, and 
also Re\-. John Beach, one of the founders 
and first rector of Trinity parish. Xewtown, 
Connecticut, one of the first five Episcopal 



churches established in America. He served 
as its rector for tiie long period of fifty years. 
At an early day Stiles Beach, the father 
of our subject, accompanied by his family, 
removed from the vicinity of Xew London, 
Connecticut, to Onondaga county, Xew 
York, and from there came to Tyrone, 
Schuyler count)'. Obadiah Beach assisted 
in the archums task of clearing an<l impro\- 
ing the home farm in that town and there he 
continued to reside until his death in 1878. 
In 1826 he was united in marriage to Mary 
Lang', a daughter of Robert Lang, also a 
pioneer of the town of Tyrone and of Scotch 
descent. Her grandfather, Roljert Lang, 
Sr., when sixteen years of age, was im- 
pressed into the military service of England 
anil taken from iiis home in Scotlaml to light 
against the b'rench in what is known as the 
trench and Indian war, aljout twenty years 
l>rior to our Revoluti(^n. The military ex- 
perience prepared him for the ])art he took 
in the war for independence. With others, 
he and his son John were instrumental in 
forming and organizing the Third (West- 
chester co'.mty) Regiment of Militia, of 
which he was an officer and which served 
through llic Revolutionary war. Father and 
.son were taken ])risoncrs in Xew York city 
while it was in possession of the British, and 
after the close of the war they established 
and ]nil)lished the Xew ^'ork Gazette, one 
of the first daily newspapers in that city. 
Robert Lang, tl;e father of Mrs. Beach, was 
a younger son. He moved with liis family 
in an emigrant wagon from Westchester 
county to Tyrone, where he died in 1845. 
His daughter died in 1878. a few months 
before the death of her husband. (Jbadiah 
Ijeach. of this review. Their children were 
Lewis, Daniel and Philip L. 

Lewis Beacii, the oldest son, was born in 



4'4 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



I'xrune. January 8, 1828, and was educatetl 
in the common schools. He worked upon 
a farm and for a time was clerk in a dry 
goods store. In 1853 lie removed to Wis- 
consin, where he was engaged in farming 
near Janesviile until he entered the army 
(luring the Civil war. In October, 1861, he 
enlisted in Company A, 'j'hirteenth \\'iscon- 
sin Volunteer Infantry, and remained in the 
service until November, 1864, when, broken 
down in healtli, he returned to his native 
town, where he now resides. He was elected 
supervi.sor of the town of Tyrone and filled 
that office most acceptably for eight terms 
from 1874 until 1891. He also represaited 
Schuyler county in the Xew York state as- 
sembly two terms, in 1880 and 1881. He 
married Delia Willis and has two children, 
Philip L. and Charles W. 

Daniel Beach, the second son of Obadiah 
and Mary Beach, was born in Tyrone, on the 
29th of .\ugust, 1830. His early education, 
obtained in the common schools, was sup- 
plemented by a course at Alfred University 
and L'nion Cc^IIege. tie taught school in his 
native town and New York city, and ser\e<l 
one term as school commissioner of Schuyler 
county. He was graduated at the Albany 
Law School, and after his admission to the 
bar practiced his profession in Watkins until 
1864, when he was engageil as general coun- 
sel for the hall Brook Coal Company and 
the railroatl companies connected with it. 
Since then he has continued in the same posi- 
tion and as an ohicer in several corporations. 
In 1885 he was elected regent of the I'ni- 
versity of the State of New York. Mr. 
Beach was married in 1862 to Angelica 
Church Magee, and the children born to 
tlicm are Hebe P.each Harris, Jenny Beach 
Mumford, Mary A. Beach, Daniel Magee 
Beach and George Cameron Beach. 



Philip L. Beach, the third son of Obadiah 
nnd Mary Beach, was born January 26, 
1836. He also attended the common schools 
and later Alfred University and the Albany 
Law School, being graduated at both insti- 
tutions. Pie was then admitted to the bar. 
During the dark days of the Civil war, he 
enlisted in 1862, as a private in the One Hun- 
dred and Sixty-first New York \'olunteer 
Infantry and was soon afterward promoted 
to sergeant major, in which capacity he was 
serving at the time of his death, which oc- 
curred in April, 1863. 



M.\TTHIAS DEMUN. 

-Matthias Demun, now deceased, was a 
farmer of Schuyler county known and re- 
spected because of his loyalty in citizenship, 
his fidelity in friendship and his devotion to 
the best interests of his family. A native of 
Hector, New York, he was born September 
13, 1824, and at the usual age he entered the 
public schools, therein pursuing his studies 
until eighteen years of age. At that time 
he put aside his text books and became a 
factor in the business world. Throughout 
liis life he carried on agricultural i)ursuits 
and his labors were attended with a high 
measure of success, because he was a man of 
persistent purpose, unfaltering determina- 
tion and laudaljle ambition. 

On the 1 2th of August, 1848, was cele- 
brated the marriage of Mr. Demun and Miss 
Jane Pierce, a daughter of Joshua and Mary 
(Robinson) Pierce. In their family were 
nine children, of whom Catherine. Susan and 
Martin are all deceased. Tho.se living are 
Margaret, Melvina, Henry. Jane. Austin and 
George. Austin is a resident of Minnesota 




MRS. JANE DEMUN 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



417 



and Melvina of Oregon, while the others, 
with tlie exception of Mrs. Demun, live in 
Wisconsin. The home of Mr. and Mrs. 
Dennm was blessed \\ith si.x children; Ar- 
celia is the wife of Alonzo Runisey, a resi- 
dent of NVedgwood, \ew York, and they 
have two children, Walter and Belle Rumsey. 
Cordelia is the wife of Oscar Thomas, who 
is living in Schuyler county, and they have 
two daughters, Ella and Clara. Jenette 
married Miles Harris, who resides near Pul- 
tcney, Steuben county, New York, and their 
children are Edith and Claude. Josephine 
Ix'came the wife of D. C. Miller, who owns 
and operates a farm at Scnilb i'r.ltney, Steu- 
ben county. William N. married Mar)' 
Hildreth, by whom he has one child, Bessie. 
He is a painter by trade and follows that 
business in Ehnira, where he now makes his 
home. 

Mr. Dennm carried on agricultural pur- 
suits throughout his business career, his life's 
labors being ended in dcatli in 1S96. He 
was an earnest memlier and believer in the 
teachings of the Baptist church, and his po- 
litical support was given the Republican 
party, for his study of the question and issues 
of the day led him to believe that its platform 
embodied the best ideas of good government. 
Mr. Demuti's loss was deeply felt throughout 
the community as well as in his immediate 
family, because he was a public spirited citi- 
zen and did everything in his power to pro- 
mote the general welfare. 



CARL AUGUST REICH. 

Carl August Reich, who carries on gen- 
eral farming in the town of Cayuta, Schuy- 
ler county, and is meeting with creditable 
success in his work, was Iwirn in Gasenitz, 

24 



Forpommern, Germany, on the j6th of June, 
1856. His father, August Reich, was also 
born in the same country, I'ebruary 26, 1830, 
and was united in marriage in 1854 to Miss 
-Amalie Gutsche, who was born in Germany 
April 28, 1 8.^6. They became the parents 
of the following children: Gustav, Carl 
August, Emilie, Wilhelm, Frederich, Bern- 
hard. Helena, Franz and Otillie. 

In taking up the ]5ersonal history of our 
subject we present to our readers the life 
record of one of the enterprising agricul- 
turalists of Schuyler county. He acquired 
a common-school education and remained in 
his native land throughout the period of his 
boyhood and youth. He learned the mold- 
er's trade and for a number of years fol- 
lowed that pursuit in Germany. 

As a companion and helpmate for life's 
journey Mr. Reich chose Miss Emilie 
Bunke, their marriage being celebrated on 
the 13th of November, 1877. The lady was 
born March 26, 1858, and is a daughter of 
Johan Bunke, who was also born in Ger- 
many, Decemljer 31, 1813, and for his first 
v>-ife married Maria Schrodei", who ilied ten 
years later. Mr. Bunke afterward wedded 
Wilhelmiena Lubke, by whom he had five 
children: Bernard Henriette. Louise, Emi- 
lie and Hermnn. Mrs. Reich received an 
( xcellcnt education in Stettin, being a stuilent 
')f Fisiens. She was graduated with the 
highest honors attainable and was given a 
diploma or certificate, dated and sealed 
March i, 18S2. 

For ten years after their marriage Mr. 
and Mrs. Reich remained in the fatherland 
and then determined to seek a home in the 
new world. .\ccordingly they bade adieu 
to friends and native land and in 1887 sailed 
for .America, settling in Elmira, New York, 
where they li\ed until the ist of Marcli. 



4l8 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



1897. At that date they came to Schuyler 
county and purchased the farm in the town 
of Cayuta upon which they are now hving. 
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Reich has been 
blessed with six children: Emil, now de- 
ceased; Wilhelm, who is now twenty-one 
years of age and is in the United States 
iirmy. having served for one year; August, 
who is connected with the tobacco trade; and 
Carl, FranK and Ainalia, who are still in 
school. 

In his political \ icws Mr. Reich is a Re- 
publican and, v.liile he keeps well informed 
on the questions and issues of the day, he has 
never sought or desired public office, giving 
his entire time to his farm, which is under a 
high state of cultivation. He is numbered 
among the worthy German citizens of his part 
.of Schuyler county and possesses many of the 
sterling traits of character of his country- 
men, l)eing enterprising, persevering and self- 
reliant, i he»e qualities are always essential 
eiements in success and have made him one 
of the substantial residents of his adopted 
rountv. 



♦ »» 



WILLI. \M WICKH.\M. 

Tlie naPiie which introduces this review, 
and which is tliat of Hector's most promi- 
nent an(' rcpresentati\e business man, was 
also that of Hector's first citizens, for our 
subject is a descendant of the William Wick- 
ham who founded the town. He is also the 
only descendant bearing the family name, yet 
from the estajjlislinicnt of the town down to 
tlie presciit lirne the Wickhams have been 
prominent and active factors here in all that 
has ])romoie(l public progress and improve- 
ment. Th.ey have been known for honor in 
private life, for straight fnrward dealing in 



business and for all the various qualities 
which go to constitute upright manhood. 

The parents of our subject were Charles 
E. and Amelia (Keep) Wickham, and a more 
extended account of the family is given on 
another page of this work. The father was 
born in the town of Hector June 23, 1845, 
and after arriving at years of maturity he 
marrietl Amelia Keej), a daughter of Martin 
and Lavinia (Bennett) Keep. Lour children 
were born of this marriage, namely : William, 
of this review ; Bina, the wife of James Hub- 
bell, of Bennettsburg, New York; May, the 
wile of G. L. Mickel, of Elmira, New York; 
and Nellie, at home. 

William Wickham was born in the town 
of Hector August 11, 1871. and in the jniblic 
.schools acquired his literary education, which 
was afterward supplemented by a commer- 
cial course in Warners Business College, of 
Elmira, New York. Upon his return home 
he became identified with agricultural pur- 
.^uits and for se\en years follow'cd farming in 
the town of Hector, leasing a ^■aluable tract 
of land of one hundred and fifty-one acres, 
owned by his father, which was placed under 
a 'nigh state ol cultivation and improved with 
/iiodern equipments. On the expiration of 
that period, however, he turned his atten- 
tion to merchandising in Hector, opening the 
store in 1899. He now handles e.xerything 
usually found in a first-class general estab- 
lishment, his stock being carefully selected 
r.nd its sales return to him a good income. 
His business methods are in keeping with 
tlie family reputation and his honest dealing 
and uniform courtesy to his patrons is win- 
ning for hr.n a trade that is constantly grow- 
ing. Mr. Wickham also received the ap- 
pointment of postmaster at Hector February 
5, 1903. Other business enterprises have 
claimed his attention and have profited by 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



419 



his wise counsel and sound judgment. ] le 
is the mr,;iatjer of tlie New York & Pennsyl- 
vania Telephone office at Hector ami owns 
over a half interest in the local line between 
Hector and Logan, and is president of the 
company. 

On the 28th of December, 1892, was cele- 
brated the marriage of Mr. W'ickham ant! 
Miss Xellie Donnelly, daughter of Andrew J. 
and Lydia Bond Donnelly. She is also a native 
of the town of Hector antl both Mr. and Mrs. 
W'ickham lia\e many acquaintances here and 
are widely and favorably known. Mr. Wick- 
nam is well known in the county of his nativ- 
ity which is also the ancestral home of the 
f.nmily and is to-day recognized as a wide- 
awake, e;iterprising business inan. He is 
alert to the best interests of Hector and its 
development and whenever his aid is .solicited 
in behalf of movements for the general good 
it is always cheerfully and freely given. 



SIMON CHARLES. 

Simoti Charles, who carries on agricul- 
tural pursuits near Odessa, is a native of Mas- 
sachusetts, his birth having occurred in the 
year 1825. He was only five years of age 
when he was brougiit to New York by his 
parents, the family settling in the midst of 
the green woods, where the father cleared 
and developed a good farm. As his age and 
strength would permit Simon Charles assist- 
ed in the arduous task of improving this land 
pud thus he lived until the year 1862. becom- 
ing familiar with farm work in all of its de- 
partments, including the ta.sk of cutting down 
the trees and clearing the brush away in or- 
der to plow and plant the fields. 

When the country became involved in 
Civil war Mr. Charles was aroused by a spirit 



of patriotism and as a loyal ilefcnder of the 
Union cause he entered the army, becoming 
a member or the l'"ifty-third Regiment of 
Pennsylvania X'oluntecrs. Donning the blue 
uniform of the nation he went to the front 
with his command and particii)ated in a num- 
ber of important engagements. He was 
taken prisoner on the 25th of August, 1864, 
and was sent to Libby prison, but in October 
was transferred to Salisbury ])rison, where 
he remained until .\pril, 1865, being returned 
to the Union lines on the 27th of that month, 
after hostilities had ceased. He was nearly 
starved, o\\ i;ig to the meager rations allowed 
to the prisoners, and he suffered untold hard- 
ships. He participated in the battle of Shen- 
andoah and then returned to Washington, 
after which the regiment then proceeded to 
Virginia, taking part in the hotly contested 
battle of the Wilderness. Mr. Charles was 
afterward ur.der fire at Cold Harl)or and the 
battle of Spottsylvania and others. He was 
always found at his post of duty and was 
brave and loyal in defense of the Union 
cause. 

After the close of the war Mr. Charles 
resumed farming ami has always made that 
pursuit his life work. In September, 1847, 
he was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. 
Ferguson, a daughter of John and Christine 
Ferguson, of Alden, New York. They were 
the parents of three children : Mary, Cor- 
nelia and Eliza. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Charles 
h.i\e been born four children : Florence, 
'i'ruman, Edward and Kittie. With his fam- 
ily he resides upon the vM home farm in 
Odessa, where he has .so long lived. He has 
long since passed the Psalmist's span of three 
score years and ten, having reached the sev- 
venty-seventh mile-stone on life's journey. In 
matters of citizenship he has always been as 
irue and loval to his countrv as when he fol- 



420 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



jowed the old I'Jag on southern battle-fields. 
His life has bcci: quietly passed in his farm 
work, but he has always been recognized as 
a man of genuine worth, honorable in his 
trade transductions and faithful to the duties 
of public and private life. 



FLAViUS W. NORTHRUP. 

Flavins W. Northrup. who is engagetl in 
ci general commisaon business at Beaver 
Dams, is a representative of one of the old 
families of Dutchess county. He was born 
in that county September 17, 1840, being one 
of a family of twelve children born to Ora 
and Eli.'.a (Ward) Northrup, both born in 
1801, the former in Dutchess county and the 
latter in Seneca county. The father, who 
was a highly respected citizen of Dutchess 
county, and who was for some years justice 
of the peace, died in 1853. The Northrup 
family were of Tuiglish origin, and were 
among the early settlers of Dutchess county, 
Solomon Northrup, the grandfather of our 
subject, bemg a nati\e of that county. He 
was a largo larmer, and on their marriage 
ga\e to his twelve children one thousand dol- 
lars apiece, besides leaving considerable 
money at the time of his death. 

Flavins W. Northrup was but eight years 
of age wlien his father died and was but 
twelve years old when the family remo\'ed 
to Elmira, New York, where for a time he 
was employed as a clerk in a boot and shoe 
store. At the public schools of his native 
place, aJid aiso at Elmira, he obtained a good 
English cducalion. .\fter.the age of fifteen 
his elder brother having married, the care 
of the family and widowed mother devolved 
to a great extent upon him. When eighteen 



lie rented a farm near the city, which he oper- 
ated with reasonable success for four years, 
v\hen he ga\ e up farming and entered a shoe 
s:ore as clerk. Alter remaining in that ca- 
])acity one year he engaged in the boot and 
shoe trade for himself, in which he contin- 
ued for tliiee years. On account of failing 
health he vas compelled to give up the busi- 
ness, and for the succeeding four years was 
engaged aj a traveling salesman for a lxx)t 
and shoe house. 

On October 7, 1869, while engaged in 
tra\e!ing, our subject married Miss Jose- 
phine Seaman, a native of Dutche.ss county, 
born August 18, 1S45, '^"'^ ^ daughter of 
Egbert C. and Eliza (Van\\"agner) Seaman. 
The latter ^vas a sister of Williajn Van Wag- 
ner, the "learned blacksmith" of Poughkeep- 
sie, and also of James Van Wagner, the 
'''preacher of the west," who was for years 
pastor of the Congregational church at Se- 
dalia, Missouri, and while there was called 
to Texas to establish the first Congregational 
church in that state. He was an eloquent 
man, and one season while Henry Ward 
Beecher was absent Mr. Van Wagner filled 
his Brooklyn pulpit. By our subject's mar- 
riage three sons and one daughter were born : 
Jivelyn I., the wife of Professor I. C. Corbett, 
professor ol horticulture and forestry in the 
West Virginia University at Morgantown ; 
Leonard E., who is interested in business 
with his father; .\rthur H., a student in the 
medical department of Columbia College, 
New York city; and Seaman F., an attorney 
of Watkins. 

After his marriage our subject located in 
Elmira. but after traveling two years again 
cngageil in business for hiiuself. Two years 
later he sold out, and in 1874 removed to 
Beaver Dams, where he purcha.sed a stock of 
lKX)ts and shoes and continued in business 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



421 



until 1880, when he sold out again and took 
up traveling, this time for a wholesale gro- 
cery house. With the latter establishment 
he remained two years, and then for ten years 
was with che Rotet Seaman Company, of 
New York. At the expiration of that time, 
although not severing his connections with 
tiie XewYork house, he engaged in his i)res- 
cnt business-, making a specialty of handling 
wool and general fami produce, buying and 
shipping all the wool from this part of the 
county. He also handles in large quantities 
aoples, potatoes and butter. Mr. and .Mrs. 
Northrup are members of the Presl)ytcrian 
cluirch, and he is a strong temperance man, 
having at times been connected with the Sons 
of Temperance and Good Templars. He is 
also identified with tlie Knights of Honor, 
and in each society mentioned has held an 
official position. In politics he is a Republi- 
can, and cast his first presidential vote for 

Lincoln. 

•-•-♦ 

SEAMAN FRANCIS NORTHRUP. 

.^Itiiougii one of the younger members of 
the legal fraternity of Schuyler county. Sea- 
, man f'Yaiicis Nortln-up has attained consid- 
erable distinction and has gainetl a reputation 
which argues well for his future. He is now 
the district attorney of Schuyler county and 
also has many private business interests. Mr. 
Nortlirup was born in Beaver Dams on the 
J 211(1 of May, 1876, his parents being FIa\ius 
W. a'ld Josephine M. (Seaman) Northrup. 
He attended the public schools of his native 
town, completing the course there and then 
entered Cook .Academy, where he continued 
his studies for three years. On the expira- 
tion of that period he turned his attention to 
leaching, wl.ich profession he followed in 



the schools of Schuyler county. While in 
the aca<!cn;y he prepared himself for college 
and in the fall of 1895 '^^ entered the State 
University of West \''irginia, where he pur- 
sued a course that won him the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law. In 
1897 he was admitted to the bar in that state, 
v.liere he began practice and remained until 
September, 1898. He then went to Buffalo, 
pursuing post-graduate law work in the Buf- 
falo Law School. While in that city he was 
connected with the firm of Frisbee, Davidson 
& Redfield, attorneys oi Buffalo, and also in 
the district attorney's office of Erie county. 
Upon the completion of his post-graduate 
course Mr. Northrup was admitted to the 
practice at the bar of New York state, and, 
coming to Watkins. he opened his office here. 
Already he has gained a good clientage and 
has successfully demonstrated his ability to 
cope with many of the intricate problems 
which are continually before the lawyer. 

rolitic;;ily Mr. Northrup is a Rc])ul)lican, 
deeply interested in the welfare and success 
of his party. In November, 1899. '1^ ^^'"^ 
elected on iliis ticket to the offxe of district 
attorney and in 1902 re-elected for another 
term of three years. He is a member of the 
Presbyterian church and is well known in the 
social circles of the town, being a popular, 
progressive and intelligent young man. 



J.\MES T. FIXL.XX. 

James T. Finlan, a traveling salesman, 
whose home is at Reading Center, was born 
in New York city on the 9th of January, 
1849, ami is a son of Patrick and .\Hce 
(Wall) Finlan, who remained in the metrop- 
olis until called to their final rest, when the 



422 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL, RECORD 



subject of i!iis review was about eight years 
of age. Tlirough liie four succeeding years 
James T. Fiulan earned bis own living by 
V'ori\ing as an errand boy for Luther Smith, 
of New York city, and when twelve years of 
age he went to live in the town of Geneva, 
Ontario county, New York. The first year 
after lea\ing the metropolis he made his home 
with W'inrieid Scott. There his entire sup- 
ply of clotiiing constituted two poor suits 
made of overall material. He had no under- 
clothing, no mittens, shoes nor boots, and 
thus clad lie had to go to the timber and haiJ 
timber sled lengths to the farm, where the 
trees were cut for stove wood. He also had 
to take care of four head of cattle, six horses. 
four hogs and forty sheqi, performing this 
work all through the winter without any help 
At the end of the year he ran away because of 
the aliuse and ill treatment which he received, 
and wer>t to live with John Huie, who was a 
most kind friend, largely filling the place of a 
fatlier to him. He remained with Mr. Huie 
urjtil twenty-one years of age, and yet re- 
gards his iit)me as his own. He attended 
school for only one winter, but during his 
minority he was allowed the privilege of earn- 
ing some money for himself Ijy working for 
neighlxjrs, and thus lie had saved three hun- 
dred and twenty-one dollars. 

When Mr. Finlan had attained his major- 
ity he came to Reading Center and learnetl 
the blacksmith's trade under the direction of 
John Goundry, with whom he served a two 
years' apprenticeship, receiving fifty dollars 
for his services in his first year and one hun- 
dred dollars in the second year. He afterward 
worked as a joumejinan in Benton Center, 
Yates county, for H. Yan Orden, after which 
he was married and took up his abode in 
Reading Center, establishing a shop of his 
own in a rented building. Later, however. 



lie erected a shop which he still owns and 
which is now rented. Here he carried on 
the blacksmith's trade until 1896, when he 
went upon the road as a traveling salesman 
for Myer f'liendly, of Elmira, Xew York, a 
manufactiuxr of buggies, wagons, carriages 
and other vehicles. In the interest of this 
business he travels through Schuyler, Yates. 
Ontario, Stiicca and part of Tompkins coun- 
ties, representing this firm at the difYerent 
fairs held in all of these counties. He has 
built up a good business, securing a liberal 
patronage for the house he represents, and 
thus being able to command a good salary 
for himself. 

Mr. I-"inlan was married in Reading Cen- 
ter, on the I ith of Xovember, 1871, to Miss 
Emma C. I.ott, who was born in the town of 
Lodi, Seneca county, and was about eight or 
ten years of age when she removed to Read- 
ing with, her parents, Samuel and Betsey 
(Sutton) Lott. Two children have been 
born unto our subject and his wife, the elder 
Ijeing Jennie May, who was born in Reading 
Center and is now the wife of Mott Honey- 
well, a resident of the town of Tyrone, Schuy- 
ler county, by whom she has one child, Alice. 
The second daughter of the family was Alice, 
w-ho died in February, 1899, at the age of 
twenty-three years. 

^Ir. Finlan votes with the Republican 
|<arty, of which he is a stanch advocate, and 
has never failed to support its presidential 
candidates since he cast his first ballot for 
U. S. Grant in 1872. For several years he 
served as constable and for six years he filled 
the office of deputy sheriff, first under Sher- 
iff Lyon and afterward under Sheriff Hurd. 
'•\>r six years he has been poormaster for his 
C'lunty and is still acting in that capacity. .\ 
^"alued repre.sentativeof the Odd Fellows fra- 
ternity, he belongs to W'atkins Lodge, No. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



423 



196. There is much tliat is commendable in 
the life record of Mr. Finlan and his history 
illustrates clearly that advancement can be 
secured through diligence, earnest effort and 
honorable dealing. A little lad of eight years, 
starting out to make his own way in tlie 
world, unpreparetl for life's responsibilities 
by home surroundings or by educational 
privileges, he, nevertheless, has worked his 
way upward and has not only gained for 
himself a good living, but has commanded 
the respect and confidence of those whom he 
has been associated. 



JAMES BAIRD. 

James Laird, whose farming interests 
make him a worthy representative of agri- 
cultural circles in Schuyler county, was bom 
on the 20th of April. 1839, m the neighljor- 
ing state of Pennsylvania, his birthplace be- 
ing the town of Wayne. His father. John 
Baird, however, was a native son of the Em- 
pire state, born in Catlin. In early manhood 
he wedded Saliie Loveless, and they became 
the parents of four ciiildren : Mary, Maria, 
Adeline and James. The first named liecame 
the wife of Bailey Hall, who died at Painted 
Post. New York, on the 15th of March, 1891. 
By this marriage there were three children, 
and Mrs. Hall still resides at Painted Post. 
Maria is the wile of William Bennett and re- 
sides at Elklanci. Her husband is engaged 
in business as a bicycle repairer, and they 
have two children. Adeline, the other daugh- 
ter of the Baird fannly, is deceased. 

Under the parental roof James Baird of 
this review spent the days of his childhood, 
attending liie common schools through the 
winter months, while in the summer seasons 



he worked upon the home farm. As a com- 
panidu and helpmate for life's journey he 
chose Miss Caroline Robbins. and they were 
married on the 4th of .\pril, 1S58. the lady 
being a daughter of John and Minerva 
I Woodruff) i\.obbins. Twl> children were 
bom of this union : John is now deceasecl. 
Mattie, the daughter, is a resident of Monte- 
rey, where her husband, William Dewit, is 
engaged in business as a carpenter and joiner. 
In 1861 Mr. Baird bade adieu to his 
young wife and little family, and on the i6th 
of Sei)teml)er enlisted lor service as a defend- 
er of the Union, becoming a member of Com- 
pany C, P^ighty-sixth Xcw York \'olunteers. 
As a soldier his record is creditable and com- 
mendable. He underw ent many of the hard- 
ships and trials of war, but was always found 
nt his post of duty, never faltering in the per- 
formance of any task assigned to him, wheth- 
er it led him to t!ie lonely picket line or into 
the thickest of the battle. Xot long after his 
return home Mr. Baird was called upon to 
mourn the loss of his wife, who died on the 
30th of December, 1S64. After living alone 
for several years he was again married, in 
1869, his second imion being with Miss 
Martha Hull, by whom he had one child. Car- 
rie, now deceased. Mrs. Baird is a daughter 
of Nathaniel ami Susan (Bailey) Hull, in 
wliose family were seven children, namely: 
Bailev. Lane, Sarah. Jane. Mary. Susan and 
Martha. Both our subject and his wife have 
,'i large circle of warm friends in the com- 
munity where they make their home. They 
are ])eople of genuine worth, their lives be- 
ing permeated by Christian principles. They 
hold membership in the Baptist church and 
are deeply interested in its work and upbuild- 
ing. In his political affiliations Mr. Baird 
is a Republican but has never sought or de- 
sired office. The familv home is now m 



424 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Montererv. 2^Ir. Baird devotes liis energies 
to agricultural pursuits, and his close applica- 
tion, unfailing purpose and strong determina- 
tion have been the salient features in his suc- 
cessful career. 



ALOXZO GRAVES BALL. 

For many years this gentleman has been 
identified with the journalistic interests of 
Montour Falls and is to-day the well known 
editor of the Montour Falls Free Press, 
which paper is owned by himself and son, 
C^harles B. A native of Xew York, he was 
born in Cooperstown, Otsego county, Aug- 
ust 6, 1833, and comes of a family that was 
early founded in the Empire state, his ances- 
tors being among the Mohawk Dutch or 
Knickerbocker, who settled in the vicinity of 
New York city and in the Mohawk Valley 
at a very early day. His father, Lyman 
Ball, was born in Brookfield, Madison county' 
in 1808. and lived for some sime in Chau- 
tauqua county. Subsequently he was en- 
gaged in the butcher inisiness in Coopers- 
town and also dealt in hops and wool. He 
died in this state about 1848. For a compan- 
ion and helpmate on life's journey he mar- 
ried Miss Hannah Irish, and to them were 
born six children, namely : Sarepta, wife of 
Ira Johnson, of Cattaraugus county, New 
York ; .\lonzo G., whose name introduces this 
sketch; Emma, wife of George Misson of 
Cooperstown ; Theodore also a resident of 
Cooperstown ; Harrison deceased ; and Ly- 
man, who died when about si.x years old. 

During his boyhood Alonzo G. Ball at- 
tended the common schools and acailemy at 
Cooperstown, and after laying aside his text 
books entered a printing office, where he 



learned the trade which he has since made his 
life work. For one year he was with the 
firm of Shaw & Titus, and when they sold out 
he went with Mr. Titus to Jackson. Michigan, 
where he remained alx)ut three years. At the 
end of that time he removed to Fort Wayne, 
Indiana, where he was employed as clerk in 
the ticket office of the Ohio & Indiana Rail- 
road running between Fort Wayne and Crest- 
line, Ohio. He next acted as captain of a pack- 
et line on the old Wabash canal between 
Fort ^\'ayne and Lafayette, Indiana, for some 
time, and later was mail agent on the Toledo 
& Wabash Railroatl from Fort Wayne 
to Toledo. Oil leaving that position he re- 
turned east, but suljsequently spent some time 
in Cedar Rapids and Cedar Falls, Iowa. At 
the latter place he again took up newspaper 
work in partnership with a Mr. Hill, owning 
the Cedar Tails Banner, which they conduct- 
ed ab<:-ut three years. .At the expiration of 
liiat ])eriod he returned to Cooperstown, 
New York, and in 1864 came to Montour 
Falls (then Havana), where, in 1866, he 
ijought the Havana Journal, after having 
managed tlie same for Mr. Cook for one 
year. He van that paper for twaity-two 
yeiirs. and in 1889, with his son. Charles B., 
established the Flavana Free Press, the name 
of which has since been changed to the Mon- 
tcnir Falls Tree Press. 

On the i8th of May, 1857, Mr. Ball, was 
united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Dulcher, 
a daughter of Philo and Delxirah f Parshall) 
Dutcher, and unto them two children have 
been born : Charles B., whose .sketch ap- 
]^cars below ; and Hattie. The latter mar- 
ried Albert C. Frost, who is a meml^er of the 
firm of Frost & Williams, hardware mer- 
chants of Corning, and they have five chil- 
dren: Kate B., Mary Georgiana, Bernice, 
Clark L. and Frances. 



I 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



425 



Religiously Mr. Ball is identified with 
St. Paul's Episcopal churcli. and politically 
is a supporter of the Republican party. He 
has ever taken an acti\e and prominent part 
in public affairs, at one time serving as trus- 
tee of Havana village and fur eight years as 
postmaster under the administrations of 
Presidents Grant and Hayes. He is a man of 
recognized ability, and as a citizen ever stands 
ready to discharge any duty devolving upon 
him. Few men are better known through- 
out Schux'ler county, and as a puljlic spirited 
and enterprising citizen he is recognized as 
a valued factor in the comnumity where lie 
has so long made his home. 



CHARLES BEXJAMIX BALL. 

Charles Benjamiii Ball, the well known 
and popular postmaster of Montour Falls, 
and one of the representative business men 
of that place, was born on the 8th of July, 
1858, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, a son of Alonzo 
Graves and Mary Ann (Dutcher) Ball, a 
sketch of whom is given above. He was 
only two years old when his parents returned 
to their old home in Coopenstown, Otsego 
county, New York, and four years later they 
came to Havana, now Montour Falls, where 
they have since made their home. Here our 
sul)ject was reared and educated, attending 
the Union school and also the Masonic Acad- 
emy, now the Cook Academy. 

When l:is school days were over Mr. Ball 
began learning the printer's trade in the old 
Journal oltice, of which liis father had charge 
as editor and owner for twenty-two years, 
and later became associate editor. On the 
29th of September, 1889, in partnership with 
his father, he established the Havana Free- 



Press, which became the Montour Falls Free 
Press when the name of the town was 
changed. They have since conducted this 
paper with marked success, our subject being 
the publisher and proprietor, while his father 
if, editor. 

Mr. Ball was married June 15, 1886, to 
Miss Cora \'. Stoddard, a native of Montour 
Fails, and a daughter of Jesse and Abigail 
(Roberts) Stoddard, and to them have been 
born six children : one who died in infancy; 
Hattie Bertha, at home; Nellie Winton, 
V. ho died at the age of seven years ; Martha, 
who died at the age of four years ; and Vel- 
ma and Lyman Stoddard, both at home. 

The Republican party has always found in 
Mr. Ball an earnest advocate of its princi- 
ples and one of its stalwart supporters, and he 
has been called upon to fill several important 
positions in public life, being trustee of his 
town two years and a member of the board of 
education for three years. In March, 1899. 
he was appointed postmaster of Montour 
Falls by President McKinley and has since 
acceptably filled the office, discharging its 
various rluties in a prompt and commendable 
manner. In 1885-86 he was clerk of the 
railway committee of the Xew York state 
assembly; and the following vear held the 
position of assistant postmaster in the as- 
sembly post ofifice. He has often served on 
the Republican county cnmniiltcc, and was its 
secretary at one time ; and has been a dele- 
gate to the senatorial and congressional c<in- 
ventions, being one of the most active and 
influential representatives of the party in 
S';huyler county. He was a charter mem- 
ber of the Protective Engine ami Hose Com- 
panv and U.s first secretary, and for two years 
served as chief of the Montour Falls fire de- 
]>artment. Socially he is a member of Myrtle 
Lodge, No. 131, F. & A. M., of Montour 



426 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Fails. He is deeply interested in public af- 
fairs and the good of the community in wliich 
he resides. He is genial, courteous, enter- 
prising^ and {)rogressive, and his public and 
private life are alike above reproach. 



A\'ERY P. GRAX'ES. 

Avery P Graves, who is engaged in gen- 
era! farming in the tow n of Catharine. Schuy- 
ler county. V. as born October 6, 1840, in 
Manlius, Xe.v York, and is a son of Reuben 
and Betsey (Whiteford) Graves. His fa- 
ther was a native of Massachusetts and dur- 
ing his boyhood became a resident of New 
York, where he was reared to adult age. He 
then married Betsey \Miiteford and they be- 
came the ])arents of eleven children, of whom 
Reuben, George, William and Susan, as well 
as our subject, are now living. Those who 
have passed away are : Sallie. James, Theo- 
dore, Anna, Hiram D. and Charles. 

Avery P. Graves is indebted to the public 
school system of his native state for the edu- 
cational privileges which he enjoyed, but his 
training at farm lal)or was much more ex- 
tended than his educational advantages, for 
at an early age he left school and began work- 
ing on the home farm, where he was em- 
ployed continuously until the 3d of May, 
1861. On that date, when init twenty years 
of age, he offered his services to the govern- 
ment in defense of the Union, joining the 
army under Captain Mulford, of Company 
K, Third Regiment of New York Infantry. 
He served for two years, taking ])art in a 
number of engagements and was then honor- 
ably discharged, after which he returned 
home. When he had spent three months in 
this state he again enlisted, en the 4th of .Au- 
gust. 1863, for tliree years, or the remainder 



of the war. He went to the front the second 
time under command of Captain Disosway, 
of Company C. Fifth New York Regiment 
Heavy Artillery, and was with that command 
until after the cessation of hostilities, when 
he once more received an honorable discharge. 
He has aniilitary record for ■which he has 
e\ery reason to be proud, because he was 
always found at his post of duty, faithfully 
defending the stars and stripes, the emblem 
of the Union. 

When the war was Over Mr. Graves came 
to Havana, now Montour Falls, where he re- 
mained a fevv months, his attention being de- 
voted to agricultural pursuits. He then 
went to Ohio, where he was married in 1883 
to Miss I.uelia Hud, and they became the 
parents of two daughters, Dora and Maude, 
but the wife and mother was called to her 
final rest March 6, 1895. After spending 
about twenty-one years in Ohio Mr. Graves 
returned to Schuyler county. New York, and 
now makes liis home in the town of Cath- 
arine. He is identified with the Baptist 
church, taking a deep interest in its success, 
its growth and the extension of its influence. 
He affiliates with the Republican party, hav- 
ing always endorsed its i^rinciples. and keeps 
well informed on the issues of the day, al- 
though he has never been an office seeker. 
.\s a citizen he is as loyal to his country's wel- 
fare and to the local good as he was when 
wearing the blue uniform of the nation he 
followed tlie old flag upon the battle-fields of 
the south. 



CLIFTON A. PAYNE. 

For seven years Clifton Arnold Payne 
has I')een a representative of the business in- 
terests of Watkins, where he is engaged in 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



427 



conducting a photographic gallery. He is 
a son of Stejihen and Lodema (Gibson) 
Payne, and was born in the town of Erwin, 
Steuben county. New York, December i, 
1866. The public schools of Cohocton af- 
forded liim iiis early educational privileges, 
and after accjuiring liis literary course he Ije- 
came a student in llie Warner's Business Col- 
lege of Elniira, wiiere he was graduated in 
1884. He then turned his attention to farm- 
ing which he followed for about a year, after 
which he accepted a position as lx)okkeeper 
in Cohocton, acting in tliat capacity for a 
similar period. Removing then to the south, 
he settled in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was 
engaged in business in a wood turning fac- 
tory witli Ins uncle, being identified with that 
business through the succeeding four years. 
On the expiration of that period he returned 
to the north, and studied photography with 
R. A. Kirkhani in Menominee, Michigan, 
and afterward Ijecame partner with him in 
the business. After spending about three 
years in that state he sold his interest in the 
business to his partner and came to Wat- 
kins, where he arrived on the ist of April, 
1895. Here he rented a studio and later pur- 
chased it, and since that time has been one of 
the successful business men of Watkins. His 
Grt gallery is well equipped with all modern 
appliances for executing high grade work, 
and lie is thoroughly well informed concern- 
ing the latest processes of photography for 
turning out artistic work. 

On the 7th of August, 1895, Mr. Payne 
was united in marriage to Adah E. Waldron. 
a daughter of Aaron and Sarah (Gunder- 
nian) Waldron. Their union has been 
blessed with two interesting daughters: 
Viva, born May 21, 1896; and Helen, born 
September 14. 1897. Tn his political views 
Mr. Payne is an eiirnest Republican, and 



keeps well informed on the issues of the day, 
ijeing thus enabled to support his position by 
intelligent argument. He never seeks nor 
desires office. He belongs to the Method- 
ist Episcopal church, in which he has 
served as the recording steward for five years, 
and in other clunxhes he has filled the same 
office. He puts forth every effort in his jjow- 
cr to promote tiie growth of the church and 
extend its influence, and in all matters of pub- 
lic concern he is found upon the side of re- 
form, progress and the right. Mr. Payne is 
now enjoying a liberal patronage in the line 
of his chosen profession, this being due to his 
capability, his reasonable prices and his 
straightforward dealing. He is a man of 
unfailing courtfcsy, deference to the opinions 
of others and geniality, and these have made 
him a popular as well as a highly respected 
resident of his adopted town. 



E.\U-,RSOX R. BISSELL. 

One of the most straightforward, ener- 
getic and successful business men of Tyrone 
is Emerson R. Bisscll. a general merchant 
who is numbered among the native .sons of 
this locality, his birth having occurred Fel>- 
ruary 17, 1836; in the village where he yet 
resides. His father, Elias Bissell, was born 
in Rutland. Vermont, and during his boy- 
hood days came to Schuyler county, Xcw 
York, wiiii his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Benja- 
min Bissell. who made the journey across the 
country with ox teams. After arriving at 
years of maturity Elias Bissell was united 
in marriage to Clarissa Canfield, who was 
I)orn in Connecticut and came to Schuyler 
county in her girlhood days about the time 
tiie Bissell family was established here. They 



428 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



located in the same neighborhood in the town 
of Reading. The fatlier of our subject 
learned the trade of a cooper and followed it 
in Tyrone during the greater part of his life, 
living to be eighty years of age, his death oc- 
curring March 8, 1894. His wife passed 
away \vhen their son Emerson was only aliout 
ten years of age. Mr. Bissell gave his politi- 
cal support to the Republican party after its 
organization, and while he kept well informed 
on the questions and issues of the day he 
never songiit or desired public office. 

In the place of his nativity Emerson Bis- 
sell was reared, and having acquired a com- 
mon-school education at the age of sixteen 
years he started out in business life, securing 
a clerkship in a store in Tyrone. He was 
thus employed for about fifteen years, and in 
1874 he embarked in business on his own ac- 
count, entering into partnership with John 
T. Williams as a dry-goods and grocery mer- 
chant. They increased their stock of goods, 
removed their store to a different site and 
eventually Mr. Bissell purchased his partner's 
interest in the year 1885. He has continu- 
ously engaged in merchandising in Tyrone 
for twenty-eight years, and his connection 
with mercantile interests here dates back to 
a much longer period, covering forty-three 
years. It will thus be seen that he is ex- 
ceedingly VI ell known in business circles and 
to the general public, and his trade relations 
have ever been such that he has maiiitained 
nn unassailable reputation. 

In October, 1861, in Tyrone, Mr. Bis- 
sell was united in marriage to Miss Mary J- 
Alderman, who was a resident of this village. 
Four childicn have lieen born unto them. 
Frank E., who is an Episcopal minister of 
Boston and a graduate of the Wisconsin 
Theological School ; Mirtie. the wife of Dan-i 
iel S. Crawford, the junior member of the 



firm of Bissell S: Crawford; Elias H., who 
married Xina Potter and is a clerk in the 
office of the surrogate of Watkins ; and Clara, 
at home. 

Mr. Bissell cast his first presidential ballot 
for Abraham Lincoln in i860 and has since 
been unwavering in his support of the Repub- 
lican party. L'pon its ticket he has been elect- 
ed to most of the town offices, including that 
of town clerk, and for four terms he was su- 
pervisor. L'nder President Johnson he was 
appointed postmaster of Tyrone and occupied 
the position continuously for eighteen years, 
a fact v.hich certainly is indicative of his 
fidelity and promptness in the discharge of 
his official tluties. l-Vaternally he is con- 
nected with Lamoka Lodge, No. 463, F. & 
A. M. Mr. Bissell is a self-made man vvlio 
has had his own way to make in the world. 
.Self-reliance, conscientiousness, energy, hon- 
esty — these are the traits of character that in- 
sure the highest emoluments and greatest 
success, and to these may be attributed the 
prosperity that has crowned the efforts of 
Emerson R. Bissell. 



• LOVETT LA FEVER. 

Among the men of Schuyler county who 
have contributed to its progress and develop- 
ment Lovett La Fever was numbered, and 
though he has now passed away he is yet re- 
membered by many with whom he was asso- 
ciated. He was ever known as a man of 
sterling worth and high moral character, and 
his fidelity to jirinciple gained him the con- 
fidence and good will of all. He was born in 
the town of Reading Septemljer 8, 1828, a 
son of Miner and Margaret (Obert") La Fev- 
er. The common school system of his lo- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



429 



caiily provided him with his etkicational priv- 
ileges, and at the age of eighteen he left 
school, taking up the plane and saw. When 
he put aside his text Ixjoks he learned the car- 
penter's trade, which he followed lor many 
years, becoming a good workman. 

]\Ir. La Fever was united in marriage to 
Miss Susan Cole, who was horn February 8, 
T838, in the town of Catiin, Chemung coun- 
ty, New York. Her fatiier, Ira Cole, was 
born in Putnam county, Xew York, March 
15, 1804, and his wife, who bore the maiden 
name of N.'mcy Bailey, was also a native of 
that cuunty, born on tlie 7th of April, 1807. 
After their marriage they settled in the town 
of Catiin, Chemung county, in an early day 
They had a family of seven children, name- 
ly : Phebe and George, now deceased; Mi- 
randa; Minerva, who has also passed away; 
Susan ; C'harles L. ; and Sanuiel B. Of this 
number Miranda became tlie wife of James 
Gardner, and they reside in Michigan. 
Charles L., who is living in \Vatkins. wedded 
Almira Woodrufif, and they have three chil- 
dren : Frank, Florence and Ira. Samuel 
B. married Ursula Dean, and they reside in 
Townsend. They had four children : Dean ; 
Don; Lloyd, now deceased; and William. 

At the time of their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. La Fever began keeping house in the 
town of Dix, ^vJ^ere they lived for a year 
They then .settled in the village of Beavei 
Dams, which was their home for six years, 
after which they purchased the place near the 
village of Bea\er Dams where Mrs. La Fev- 
er is now living. Here slie has sixty-seven 
acres of land which is rich and valuable and 
is under a high state of cultivation, return- 
ing to the owner a creditable income. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. La Fever was 
blessed with six children : Wilmer, who re- 
sides in Corning and works in the car shops 



there, married Mary E. Wickham, and they 
have four children, Edith, Susan, Martin and 
Fannie. Eldora is the wife of Hiram Lock- 
wood, also a resident of Corning, and they 
have five children : John L., Raymond, 
Lena, Herman and Nora. Austin, the next 
member of the La Fever family, married Net- 
tie Durand, and with their three children, 
Sidney, Marian ami Lester, they reside in 
Coming. Agnes became the wife of Her- 
man Bong, a jeweler, who died in November, 
1896, only fourteen months after their mar- 
riage. Mrs. Bong and her little daughter, 
Ernestine, made their home in Corning. 
Ophelia is deceased. Dana married Elsie 
Smith, of Saginaw, Michigan, and is en- 
gaged in farming in that state. 

Mr. La Fever was an earnest Democrat, 
unfaltering in his support of the principles of 
the party. He also belonged to the Baptist 
church, contributing liberally to its support, 
and did whatever he could to promote the 
cause of Christianity here. Fie belonged to 
the Knights of Flonor and was a man whose 
upright life won for him high regard, while 
his genial nature made him popular with those 
with whom he was associated. He died upon 
the home farm August 13, 1894, and there 
his widow is still living. 



II. F. DECKER. 

Schuyler county furnished its full quota 
of .soldiers to the Union when the country 
became involved in civil w-ar. Its men went 
l)ravely forth to face dangers and even death 
on the battle-fields of the south, and among 
tiie number were many young in years but 
dauntless in courage. Of these our subject 
v.-as a representative, for at the age of sixteen 



43° 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



he joined the army. He was horn on the 8th 
of November, 1844, in Schuyler county, at 
his parents' home in the town of Havana. 
His father. Burton Decker, removed from 
New Jersey to Havana at the age of sixteen 
years and after arriving at man's estate he 
was here married to ^lelisent Bower. They 
became the parents of four children : H. 
J""., Hiram, Louis and Jessie, but with the 
exception of our subject all are now deceased. 

Between the ages of six and twelve years 
H. F. Decker attended school. At the lat- 
ter age he began earning his own living, and 
from that time has depended upon his own 
resources for all that he has acquired, accom- 
plished and enjoyed. He began driving 
horses on the canal and was thus employed 
lor four years, when he entered the army, 
offering his services to the government as a 
defender of the Union. He joined the Third 
New York Cavalry and was assigned to Com- 
pany K, under the command of Captain Mul- 
ford. He remained at the front for two 
years and then returned home, but after three 
months he re-enlisted as a member of Com- 
pany D, Fourteenth Regiment of New York 
Heavy Artillery. He served altogether for 
four years, seven months and seventeen days. 
His was a most creditable record, for his 
bravery and loyalty equalled that of many a 
veteran twice his years. He experienced all 
the hard?hi])s of war, but was never known 
to flinch in the performance of any duty. 

Mr. Decker returned to Havana on the 
8th of March, 1865, and here he was married 
to Abigail B. Decker, a daughter of Solomon 
Decker, wiio was torn in Minnesink, New- 
York, and went to Chemung county with his 
father when a small boy. ^\'hen he had 
reached years of maturity he wedded Harriet 
Watson, the wedding being celebrated in 
Chemung county in 1842. They became the 



parents of eight children : Jefferson ; Dick ; 
]\Iaria ; Martha, deceased ; Sylvester ; Lavina 
Jane; Phebe Priscilla, deceased; and Robert 
J. Of this family Sylvester is now living 
in Chemung county with his wife and one 
child, the former having borne the maiden 
name of Delia Green, while the latter Ijears 
the name of Roljert Decker. Jefferson Deck- 
er is living in W'averly and he married Clar- 
issa Jones, by whom he has four children. 
Lavina Jane is the wife of John Frost, of 
Havana. Robert, who married Fannie Soals, 
is a resident of Amsterdam, New York. 

Mr. Decker, of this review, at the time of 
his marriage, took his bride to a home two 
miles from Havana and there lived for three 
years. On the expiration of that period they 
removed to the village, which was their place 
of residence si.xteen years. They next took 
up their abode in Alpine, where they are now 
living, and here Mr. Decker carries on farm- 
ing, his entire time and attention being de- 
voted to the improvement and cultivation of 
his land. 



BENJAMIN WOOD SCOBEY. 

Written by Himself. 

Benjamin \Vood Scobey, for many years 
a resident of W^atkins, is not a native of west- 
ern New York. He is the only son of Joshua 
S. and Ami Maria Scobey, his father a New 
York city man (albeit the city of New York 
about the year 1800 was not much the city of 
New York of today) ; his mother, the oldest 
daughter and child of Andrew Van Valer, a 
soldier of the war of 1812, whose home at 
the time of her marriage and at the birth of 
the subject of this sketch was still with her 
father, on a stony Orange county farm situ- 
ated a mile and a half soutlieast of the vil- 



1 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



43 » 



lage i>f Monroe, aiul not far from the hamlet 
and i)ostc)frice called Turner — named after 
Peter Turner, the principal business man in 
that day. 

Benjamin \\ . was burn November 18, 
1837. The tirst fifteen years of his life were 
passed in Monroe; the family then removed 
in 1852, to Walkins, his mother having- pur- 
chased the premises at the southeast corner 
of Franklin and First streets. There they 
remained but one year, during which the boy 
attended the district school during the sum- 
mer and fall, and through tiie winter served 
in the grocery store of Atwood & Hurd, on 
the northwest corner of Franklin and Third 
streets, now occupied by the store of Durand 
& Son. In the spring of 1853, his mother 
being engaged in the millinery business and 
.seeking a better field for patronage, removed 
to Dundee. Yates county, and tarried there a 
year and a half where the boy had the benefit 
of attendance upon the Dundee Academy, at 
that time in the heyday of its prosperity, un- 
der the management of Professor William 
Marvin. From Dundee another removal 
was made to Monterey in this county, where 
another tarry of a year and a half was made, 
utilized by the son, now a youtli, in teaching 
school and giving lessons on the piano to a 
few pupils who knew a little less of the ele- 
ments of music than he did himself. 

At length, in March, 1856, the final re- 
moval was made, back to \\'atkins, since 
wiiich time Benjamin \V. Scobey has lieen 
one of the stand-bys of the village, and now 
begins to reckon himself one of the oldest 
iidiabitants. Before returning to Watkins, 
m 1856, arrangements had been made pur- 
suant to which he immediately entered the 
service of Martin S. Phinney in his drug 
store, on the west side of Franklin street, a 
little south of Third street, afterward re- 



moved to the building erected by Mr. Phin- 
ney, opposite the Jefferson House, at this 
writing occupied l)y W. S. W'augli, in the 
same inisincss. From 1856 to 1865 his time 
was spent — six years with Mr. Phinney as 
druggist; one year with John J. \'an Allen, 
attorney and counsellor at law, "reading 
'aw;" another year with Mr. Phinney; and 
then a second year in Mr. Van Allen"s office. 
In 1865 L. M. Gano, then as now editor and 
proprietor of tlie Watkins Express, gave the 
}oung man a chance at doing more or less 
w riling for his paper, and, unfortunately, al- 
lowed him, either by contagion or infection, 
to contract tlie fatal disease, "cacoctlics 
scrihciidi;" from which he has never recov- 
ered, in 1867 five bituminous coal compan- 
ies, then mining coal in northern central 
Pennsyb.ania, united for the purpose of sell- 
ing their coal, and selected George J. Magee 
as their general sales-agent, with office at 
Watkins. ]Mr. Magee offered Mr. Scobey 
the position of bookkeeper in his office, which 
was accepted and held two years under Mr. 
Magee and three more under James Macfar- 
lane, his successor as sales agent. 

In 1S71, tiirough the influence of George 
C. Beach, whose daughter, Man,- Helen, be- 
came the wife of Mr. Scobey Noveml^er 29, 
1865. the place of bookkeeper in the then 
Second National Bank of Watkins was pro- 
cuied for Jiim. After three years service as 
bookkeeper he was made \ice-president of 
the bank, the name of which was cliangeil to 
the Watkins National Bank, and he contin- 
i.;ed in tiiat official position until July 12, 
1876, when, on account of the persistent re- 
jLisal of the president of the bank to conform 
to the wishes of the comptroller of the cur- 
rency in the management of the bank, it was 
placed in tlie hands of a receiver and immedi- 
ately ceaseil business. 



432 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



In five days from tliat time, namely on 
July 17, 1876, Henry C. Silsbee, then of Wat- 
kins, John N. Beach, of New York (brother 
of Mrs. Scobey) and Mr. Scobey formed a 
partnership and began banking in the build- 
ing on the comer of Franklin and Fourth 
streels, previously occupied by the National 
Bank, under the name of Watkins Exchange 
Bank, Mr. Silsbee Ijeing president; Mr. 
Beach, vice-president; B. W. Scobey, cash- 
ier; since which time Mr. Scobey has continu- 
ously held that position in the prosecution of 
the business. January i, 1900, Mr. Silsbee 
sold liis interest in the bank to Mr. Scobey, 
and on March 14, 1901, Mr. Beach did like- 
Vvise, leaving Mr. Scobey the sole owner of 
the business. 

On some lines we have now followed the 
career of the subject of this sketch for a luim- 
ber of years ; but there are a few more things 
to be said of him before posterity will be 
suiTiciently informed to be able to pass a 
righteous judgment on him, whether he be 
saint or devil. 

Religiously he believes that "God so lov- 
eth the world that He gave His only begot- 
ten Son that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life.'' 
As a sectarian he is a Presbyterian, a mem- 
ber "in good and regular standing," so far 
as is known, of the First Presbyterian chruch 
of Watkins, into which he was received in 
the winter of 1852, at the close of a "pro- 
tracted meeting," held m the Metiiodist 
church, at which a well known exhorter of 
that time, by the name of Adams, was in 
principal charge of the exercises. His Pres- 
byterianism is, at times, of the old-fashioned, 
iron-clad sort ; he is not quite sure to what 
extent a man is a free-agent ; he prates a good 
deal about fore-ordination, and often thinks 
he is nearer fatalism than anvthing else; but 



as he grows older he takes great pleasure in 
the broadest kind of liberalism, hoping that 
the next state of existence will be better and 
iiappier not only for himself but for every- 
body else as well ; and nothing affords him 
more interesting and profitable diversion than 
the attempt to harmonize and consolidate 
into one system of belief the .Apostles' Creed, 
the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, (un- 
revised), tiie latest authorized creed of the 
I'niversalists and Robert G. Ingersoll's creed 
as given by himself, viz : "Happiness is the 
only good; the place to be hapi)y is here; the 
time to be happy is now ; the way to be happy 
is to make others happy."' He once had oc- 
casion to write, and with the obstinacy char- 
acteristic of the man, still pertinaciously ad- 
heres to the declaration — "1 have no care 
whatever what 'church (with a little 'c') a 
person — man, woman or child — belongs to;' 
all I ask to know is this — Is he or she a be- 
lie\er in and a conscientious every-day, loy- 
ally obedient disciple of Jesus Christ. If yes 
— that person's assurance of a home in 
Heaven is perfect, regardless of his, or her, 
baptism by sprinkling or immersion ; regard- 
less, too, whether he, or she, is listed on the 
rolls of the Romish or English church or is 
ranked with the dissenters and independ- 
ents." 

In this connection it is proper to say — 
"to vindicate the truth of history" — that 
Benjamin W. Scobey stands among the pio- 
neers of the movements that resulted in the 
furnishing of uniform lessons to all the Sun- 
day-schools of this country. In December, 
1870, he began the publication, at the office 
of the Watkins Express, of a series of lesson- 
sheets, embodying helpful (|ucstions and sug- 
gestive hints on the lessons for the year 187 1, 
and continued them, monthly, throughout the 
year. These sheets were rpiite largely used. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



433 



mainly by tlic Presbyterian chnrcbes in the 
Chemung- Presbytery, but also in several 
towns at a distance, and received favorable 
notice from the then organ of the Presbyter- 
iau denomination in this country — the Xew 
^'ork Evangelist. 

Politically Mr. Scobey has always acted 
with the Republican party, beginning with 
his first vote, in 185S, although it lias taxed 
the capabilities of his conscience at times to 
Iiclp elect the party's candidates. He has 
never "consented" to "run for office" him- 
self, most of the time because he was not 
invited to do so, and the rest of the time be- 
cause he knew "the gang" would beat him if' 
lie did. He congratulates himself on having 
exercised admirable judgment in the matter. 

Bom ot a musical ancestry, from early 
boyhood music, vocal and instrumental, has 
been his one favorite diversion, although he 
has never, as yet, developed into a musical 
prodigy, and of late lias begun to think he 
never v.ill. On his mother's side (the Van 
Valer faniih' — Holland Dutch) music was 
a prime enjoyment, and received large atten- 
tion — to the extent, with his grandfather, 
Andrew Van Valer, that he became an ama- 
teur builder of musical instnuuents, violins, 
bass viols, pianos and pipe-organs. Mr. 
Valer lived to be ninety-six years old, 
and after he was eighty years old built three 
of his four si.x-stop, with swell, pipe-organs. 
Of course this Scobey grandson was early 
given some instruction in music, and for 
t\venty-fi\e years, beginning with 1856, was 
the organist of the I'irst Presbyterian church 
of Watkins. 

It cannot IriUhlully be said that this man 
about w'.-.om we are writing and Grover 
Cleveland are exactly boon companions, any 
more than they sleep in the same political 



bed Init the whole drift of history, ancient 
and modern, secular and religious, especially 
the most profane, goes to show that all great 
men hold the same opinions on many sub- 
jects, and it is with much pride that Mr. 
Scobey notes that Grover agrees with him 
(all the more to the credit of Grover) in re- 
gretting that circumstances prevented him 
from obtaining a collegiate education. How- 
e\er, he has endeavored to overcome that lack 
to an extent by the widest reading within his 
power, but still he has sufficient humility to 
confess, with another celebrated author, that 
he has only as yet gathered a few grains of 
knowledge (and less yet of wisdom) from 
the vast area spread out before us mortals. 
Like Grover, too, he has "writ some pieces,"' 
which by the unexplainable favor of his ac- 
quaintances — also of some gentlemen out- 
side of acquaintances, whose opinions are not 
purchasable, have met with approval and 
commendation. P.y the kindness of the pul^- 
lishers of this book he is permittetl to attach 
to this notice one which, perhaps because of 
the stress of feeling at the time of its publica- 
tion that it feebly gave partial utterance 
to that feeling, seemed to appeal most forci- 
bly to the hearts of the common people. It 
appeared in the \Vatkins Express of Septem- 
ber 26, '190 1, when all hearts were bowed 
with sorrow over the death of President Mc- 
Kinley. It follows : 

OUR DEAD PRESIDUNT. 

There is infinite reason to say again, as 
wc have so often said before. "How bless- 
ings brighten as they take their flight !" Over 
and over again we lament, with a grievous 
iamentati(Mi, the loss of that which we under- 
\ alued, slighted, perhaps abused, while in our 



25 



434 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



possession. Oh ! the misery of it — tliat w c 
coiuinually repeat this folly, for 
"There is an end to all hnt one sweet thing — 
To love there is no end." 

"Jnst while the people pressed to meet their 

chief, 
And he was greeting them with smiling face, 
And the glad moments were all free of grief 
In j)ride of him. the conntry, and the race — 
In the rich fullness of that happy tide. 
Aglow with memories of the nation's fame — 
As if al! human sweetness to deride, 
A form, surcharged with evil venom, came — 
Its finger Ijent — and the great ruler fell ! 
O fata! touch! O fallen, shining mark'" 

At once the swelling waves of ji)y rolled back. 

And waves of sorrow angrily rushed in ; 

Earth's mightiest nation draped itself in 

hlack. 

And al! the nations slnuklered al the sin." 
****** 

"Xow naught is left hut ashes, and we bring 
Our homage to new men, to them we bend. 

There is an end to all but one sweet thing — 
To 'lo't'c there is no end. " 

Who was our dead president? That 
question is not answered yet. nor will it he 
for many years to ror.ie, but the cnti';e Amer- 
ican people, and all the thinking men and 
women of the whole broad world have been 
awakened to a partial a])preciation of \\'ill- 
iam IMcKmley. 

Our eyes are dazzled, and our cars hum, 
with what we see and hear on every side. 
The papers and j)eoi)le who, on the morning 
of th.1t direful Friday in this sad month of 
Sei)tembcr, lampooned the martyred Presi- 
dent as the slave of trusts, the patron saint 



of oppression, the agent of syndicates, and 
mockingly asked, "Upon what meat doth this 
our Cffisar feed that he hath grown so great?" 
have, with one stride, stepped to the frotit 
rank of his eulogists. IMost wonderful trans- 
formation ! But once — and now — they 
.speak the truth of him — and we can only say 
of the- change, '"It is God's way! His will 
he done!" 

Farewell to William McKinley ! He died 
as he lived, with simple, manly courage, and 
unaffected piety. His character w-as the em- 
!)odiment of sweetness. He was master oi 
himself, and therefore fit to be master of 
others. lie was a generous, true hearted 
gentleman, a wise and Ijrilliant statesman, a 
great rmd noble chief magistrate. His great- 
est anibilit>n was to serve his country in th.e 
love of man, and the fear of God. Only a 
fine character, a noble life, fidelity and com- 
i)clency in the highest station, and a mar- 
tyr's death met with sui)reme fortitude and 
faith, could evoke such world-wide sorrow- 
as mourns his loss. 

Farewell to William McKinley! The 
good citizen, the brave soldier, the twicc-hon- 
ored chief magistrate, the true-hearted, lov- 
ing husband. His life is his monument. 
His deeds are his epitaph. He served the 
nation — the nation mourns. He adorned 
the world — the whole world weeps at his 
tomb ant' himnrs his nicm(ir\'. 



A THRENODY. 

"In life— 
By foes sometimes maligned, 
Oft doubted by his friends — 
Ignoring those who criticized, 
He saw tlie way in future skies, 
And took the path where duty lies, 
To servo the nations end." 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



435 



"In death — 
The hero of us all, 
The enemy of none, 
With pahi he trod the lonesome road, 
Knowing the end was nigh ; 
All fearless paced the dismal waste. 
And taught us how to die." 

Benj. W. Scobey. 
September 19, igoi. 

The foregoing may siiital)ly be followed 
by anotlier of his productions, first pubhshed 
in the Rockland Comity Messenger, of Hav- 
erstraw, Xew York, entitled 

A THRENODY. 
"Requiem Actcniant Dona Eis, Doininc!" 



nil. 

\Vc mourn a coimsellor and friend well tried, 
Whose own peculiar place none can supply; 
But while our hearts are sad, as thus bereft, 
W*: fix our faith on him who dealt the blow, 
.'\ssured by words immutable and promise sure, 
"The dead are blest who die in Christ," 
And "faithful ones shall have a crown of life." 



V. 



Thus comforted we bow, resigned; 

And trust our loved one, gone, to Christ's embrace, 

Yearning to meet again ; 

Nor yearn in vain — for thus we read, 

"Those gone before may not return ; 

But you may go to them." 

—Benj. W. Scobey. 
Watkins, N. Y., June, 1864. 



I. 



One more immortal soul has urged its way 

Up through the vast unknown from nature's bound. 

Past stars and suns in realms of space. 

To Him, the Majesty Divine, who sits and rules. 

And executes with wisdom infinite, 

His unrestrained decrees. 



II, 



Born to the mortal lot, with mortal frame. 
All powers possessed received by gift — 
The Giver, He Who now has taken — 
In that, th' appointed field assigned by Him 
Whose word wrought being, all were used. 
Developed, perfected matured. 

Through sorrow, joy; with pleasure, pain; 
By night, by day ; in patience, hope and love. 
Til' experience varied held its ceaseless course 

— But now 'tis done ! 



III. 



The spirit fled — our loss appears ; 

The stroke comes home upon our very hearts! 

For, though the spirit finds "'Tis gain to die!" 

Those left behind are left beneath the cloud, 

And left to mourn : 

To mourn, yet not with gloom. 

As those who have no hope. 



OI.R'KR ?. SWTCK. 

Oliver P. Swick, a representative of the 
farming interests of Schuyler county, was 
born in the town of Hector on the 29th of 
January, 1S44. He pursued a common school 
education and at the age of sixteen put aside 
his text-books in order to earn .his own liveli- 
hood. He lias since followed farming, carry- 
ing on agricultural pursuits as a means of 
providing for his family from the time of his 
marriage to the present day. \\'lien a young 
man, however, he offered his services to his 
country, being only twenty years of age when 
on the 28th of August, 1864, he joined the 
Union army as a member of the Fifty-eighth 
Xew York Xational Guards, under Colonel 
R. P. ^\'isner. He served for one hundred 
days and then witli his regiment returned to 
New York. 

In the year 1868 Mr. Swick was united in 
marriage to Miss Lucy Shearer, who has been 
to him a faitliful companion and helpmate on 
life's jotu'ney. The lady is a daughter of 



436 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



William and Lydia Ann iLrawturd) Shear- 
er, Ijeing their only child. By this marriage 
there ha\'e been born two children : Howard 
H. married May Ludlow and is in the employ 
of the street railway company of Ithaca. New 
York : and Frank P. is unmarried and is a 
lural free delivery mail carrier at Odessa. 

Our sul)ject and his wife began house- 
keeping in the town of Enfield, Tompkins 
county, and since 1871 they have resided at 
their present iiome in Catharine township, 
Schuyler county. Here Mr. Swick carries on 
agricultural pursuits and his labors are at- 
tended with good results. His fami is now 
under a high state of cultivation and every- 
thing about the place indicates his careful 
supervision and his progressive .spirit. 



CHARLES DeLAXD CLAWSON. 

Charles DeLand Clawson, one of the 
most distinguisiied representatives of the 
medical fraternity of Schuyler county, is the 
owner of the Betligsda Sanitarium at Mon- 
tour Falls, New York. His birth occurred in 
the town of Lodi, Seneca county, this state, 
^lay 17, 1838, his parents being Isaac A. and 
Abigail (Xeal) Clawson. The father, a na- 
tive of \^irginia, was born in 1800 and when 
a young man removed to New York, settling 
in the town of Hcct<jr, Schuyler county, 
about 18.20. He was a son of Garry Brant 
C iawson, a native of Holland, who on cross- 
ing the .\tlantic took up his abode in Vir- 
ginia, where he engaged in farming, and 
after his marriage he removed to Schuyler 
county. New York, in 1820. Here he pur- 
chased a farm, upon which he lived until his 
death in 1842. In his family were six sons 
and one daughter, all of whom reached years 



of maturity, Isaac L law son being the fourth 
in order of birth, ^\'h.en this country became 
for the second time engaged in hostilities with 
England tlie grandfather of the Doctor en- 
tered the army as a soldier of the war of 
1812. 

Isaac Clawson learned the carpenter's 
trade in early life and followed that pursuit 
until about thirty years of age. when he be- 
gan farming. In the latter department of 
business activity he prospered, gaining a 
good ci^nipctcnce, and upon his farm he 
reared his large family. In all of his dealings 
he was careful and conservative, honest and 
upright, and, owing to his well directed af- 
fairs, he met with prosperity. He was ne\er 
an office seeker but exerted considerable in- 
fluence in public altairs, and liis advice was 
often sougiit by friends and neighbors be- 
cause his judgment was sound and his views 
impartial. His death occurred in the year 
1872. In his family were five sons and 
two daughters, all of whom reached years 
of maturity, while six are still living, namely : 
Olivia, the wife of Enoch ^loore, a resident 
of North Hector; Ira, a jeweler of Watkins; 
Charles D.. of this review; William Firman, 
a dentist of Detroit, Michigan; Hibbard S., 
who is engaged in the automobile business in 
Lansing, Michigan; and Barnibus S., who is 
connected with railroading and makes his 
home in Syracuse, New York. 

In the public schools of his native town 
Dr. Clawson of this review obtained his edu- 
cation, and afterward continued his studies 
in the Seneca Collegiate Institute at Ovid, 
New \'ork. under Professor Amos Brown, 
who was a ven>- prominent educator and af- 
terward liecame the principal of the People's 
College, now Cook Academy, in Montour 
Falls. He completed his classical education 
in the Seneca Collegiate Institute and began 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



437 



reailinsf medicine under the direction of Dr. 
James 1^'lood, of Lodi Center, Xew York, in 
tiie year 1857. In tlie fall of the followinj:!; 
}ear he matriculated in the medical depart- 
ment of the University of Michi<jan. where 
he spent one year, and while at Ann Arbor he 
made his home with Dr. Lovejoy, who as- 
sisted him in his studies and took him upon 
many of his visits, so that he gained much 
practical as well as theoretical knowledge 
In the fall of 1S60 he entered the medical de- 
partment of the Ijiiversity of Buffalo, in 
which institution he was graduated in Feb- 
ruary. 1861. Later in order to still further 
perfect himself in his chosen calling he en- 
tered the Flahnemann Medical College, in 
which he was grarluated in 1873, and he pur- 
siied a post-graduate course in the Chicago 
Homeopathic College in 1893. taking a 
course in orilicial surgery. 

L'pon leaxing the University of Buffalo 
Dr. Clawson located for practice in East 
Barick, Seneca county, X'ew York, where he 
practiced for a few months and then removed 
to Canaga, Seneca county, where he prac- 
ticed for nearly twenty years, and in that 
period he steadily progressed, gaining prest- 
ige as a capable representative of the pro- 
fession. In 1 88 1 he came to Schuyler coun- 
t\ , locating in Montour Falls, where he be- 
came owner and proprietor of the Bethesda 
Sanitarium, which he still conducts. It is an 
inslitutiqn of great value to the city and sur- 
rounding districts and Dr. Clawson deserves 
much credit for what he has accomjilished in 
this direction. While at Canaga he had a 
very extensive practice, but the heavy de- 
mands made upon his time and strength 
proved detrimental to his health. For this 
rea.son he came to Montour Falls and took 
'1]) his present work. During the four years 
of his residence in Seneca count\' he also had 



charge of the medical work at the county 
jioor house in addition t(5 his large private 
practice. A fact long known to the profes- 
sion antl (^ne that is being recognized by the 
comuKin peojjie is that chronic or diseases of 
long standing and surgical cases can be bet- 
ter cared for and cures more rapidly affected 
in a health institution than can be accom- 
plished in one's own home. The asceptic and 
antiseptic methods employed, especially in 
surgical cases, cannot be carried out thor- 
oughly in a room or house exposed to the 
ordinarj' disease germs. Living rooms are 
unfit, except the most thorough and conse- 
quent expensive means are employed to ren- 
der them safe, especially for surgical work. 
Therefore throughout the country sanitari- 
ums have been established and most splendid 
and commentlable results have been accom- 
plished thereby for tliose in need of medical 
or surgical aid. The Bethesda Sanitarium is 
unsurpas.sed in its eciuipments and appoint- 
Uicnts by any institution of a similar charac- 
ter in a city no larger than Montour Falls ; in 
fact, the institution would be a credit to a city 
much greater in si^c. Dr. Clawson and his 
associates are prei)ared to do the most thor- 
ough surgical work by the best methods 
known to the profession. Their nurses arc 
thoroughly trained and reliable, their rooms 
large, airy and well furnished for the jnir- 
poses designed and the institution has rapidly 
won popular favor so that a liberal patronage 
is accorded to it. 

During the Civil war Dr. Clawson was 
offered the ])osition of surgeon of the One 
Hundred and Forty-eighth Regiment of Xew 
"N'ork Volunteers, and having successfully 
jtassed the examination he expected to go t<.i 
the front, Init sickness in his own family 
made him unable to report for duty at the 
lime the department dcsireil him to join the 



438 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



army and lie therefore did not become a 
soldier. 

On the 6tli of Feijruary, 1862, occurred 
tlie marriage of Dr. Clawson and Miss 
Loretta L'.-Nmoreanx, a daugliter of David 
and Margaret (Van Liew) L'Amoreaux. 
The family is of French-Huguenot e.xtrac- 
tion and was founded in America Ijy Peter 
L'Amoreaux, the great-grandfatlicr of Mrs. 
Clawson, who emigrated from Paris, France, 
and with his family settled in New Jersey. 
The grandfather of Mrs. Clawson was Dan- 
iel L'Amoreaux. The family was estab- 
lished in Xew York among the early residents 
of the town of Lodi, Seneca county. Daniel 
L'Amoreaux, the grandfather of Mrs. Claw- 
son, was but a boy when his parents came to 
the Empire state. He cleared up a farm of 
about three hundred acres in Seneca cnunty 
and was a successful and leading agricultur- 
ist of his community. In his family were 
eleven children, including David L'Amo- 
rcau.x. who was bovn in Lodi in 1804. He 
grew to manhoofl and was married there, the 
lady of his choice being Margaret Van Liew. 
v/ho was a daughter of Henry Van Liew, of 
•Holland descent and an early settler of Lodi. 
Unto Mr. and Mrs. David L'Amoreaux were 
born seven children, six of whom reached 
years of maturity, while five are still living, 
namely: Mrs. M. B. .\llen, of Geneva, New 
York; IMrs. Walter Van Vleet, of the town 
of Lodi; I. V., of Grand Rapids, Michigan; 
Mrs. C. D. Clawson ; and John, who is a 
farmer of Lodi. The two who have passed 
away are Henry and Gill)ert. I'or the first 
nine years after his marriage David L'.\mo- 
reaux conducted a hotel at Middlesex. Xew 
York, and afterward engaged in farming in 
the town of Lodi, carrying on that work 
throughout his remaining days with excel- 
lent success. 



Unto the Doctor and his wife have been 
born four children, a son and three daugh- 
ters: Carrie, who is at home; .\thelia A., 
the wife of Dr. J. 'SI. Quirk, of ^Montour 
Falls; Monroe Schuyler, who is with the 
Kug-Scheerer Company, of New York, 
manufacturers of hospital supplies; and 
Lura Olivia, \\4io is now a student in Greer 
College at Hoopeston, Illinois. !Mrs. Dr. J. 
M. Quirk is d graduate of the Genesseo Nor- 
mal school, of Geneseo, New York, and the 
others received good educational privileges. 

The Doctor and his wife hold member- 
ship in the Metiiodist Episcopal church, in 
which he is serving as one of the stewards 
and as trustee and is also superintendent of 
the Sunday-school, and he has been active in 
both church and Sunday-school work and his 
inlluence in this direction has not been with- 
out result. He is one of the trustees of the 
Cook Academy, is serving as one of the mem- 
bers of its executive committee and is a co- 
operant factor in many measures pertaining 
to the general good. In politics he is a Pro- 
hibitionist, and strongly advocates the cause 
fif temperarice and does all in his power for 
its promotion. He l)elongs to the Masonic 
liaternity, to the Montour Falls Business 
Men's .\ssociation and is not only a success- 
ful medical practitioner but also an enter- 
prising business man of marked ability. At 
the present time he is treasurer of the Havana 
Bridge Works and one of its directors. He 
was one of the incorporators of the Elmira & 
Seneca Lake Railroad, and on its first organi- 
zation served a.s a member of its directorate. 
He was the first one to propose the building 
of this road, which work was subsequently 
taken up by General Mulford and pushed 
forward to completion. The Doctor is a 
man of scholarly attainments and broad gen- 
eral information, whose interest in life is that 



^ 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



439 



of a pulilic spirited ami progressive man. 
Looking at tlie world from a practical and 
yet humanitarian standpoint his own nature 
lias heen developed along physical, intellec- 
lual and moral lines until his is a sturdy 
manhood and strong character, and his ex- 
ample is certainly well worthy of emulation. 



CHARLES P.. RICH. 

Among the native sons of this portion of 
the Empire state is numlieretl Charles B. 
Rich, who is now living in Townsend, 
Schuyler county. He was horn on the 8th of 
April, 1855, in the town of Reading. His 
lather, Alford Rich, was bom in Starkey, 
"^j ates county, Xew York, on the 7th of De- 
cemhcr, i8_'4, and on the 15th of January, 
'.850. he was united in marriage to Miss 
Caroline Drake, a native of Orange county, 
Xew York. They became the parents of two 
children, a S(jn and a daughter. Charles 
Byron and I'lora Almedia. The father after 
his marriage maintainetl his residence in 
Schuyler county, passing away on the 27th 
of December, 18S7, at the age of sixty-three 
years and twenty days, respected by all who 
knew him for his sterling worth. He had 
e\er been a man of earnest purpose, of up- 
right principles and of marked force of char- 
acter. 

Charles B. Rich, whose name introduces 
this review, pursued his education in Star- 
key and lacked but tw<j or three months of 
graduation when he was taken ill and was 
forced t(j abandon his studies. He was united 
in marriage on the loth of April, 1872, to 
Miss Libbie Estelle Lockwood. and their 
home has been blessed with the presence of 
seven cliildren, four sons and three daugh- 



ters, namely; Alice May, .\Iford William, 
Charles Arthur, tiecjrge Anscll, Carrie I^elle, 
Lena Estella and Harry Cloud. 

The family home is in Townsend and Mr. 
Rich is connected with agricultural pursuits, 
operating seven acres of land which is arable 
and productive. His farming methods are in 
keeping with the progressive spirit of the 
times, and bear little resemblance to those 
which were in vogue at the time of his youth. 
Improved machinery has revolutionized farm 
work and science has added to knowledge 
concerning the best methods of producing 
crops and caring for grain. Mr. Rich is 
deeply interested in e\erything that pertains 
10 the welfare of the agriculturist and the im- 
provement of his work, and a glance indicates 
to the passer-by the progressive and practical 
owner. His church relations connect him 
with the Methodist denomination and his 
political views are in harmony with the plat- 
form of the Democratic party. He is a mem- 
ber of Dundee Lodge. Xo. 1J3. F. & A. M., 
of Dundee, and iias taken three degrees. 



GROVE C. HORXIXG. 

Grove L. Horning is a worthy and well 
known representative of industrial and agri- 
cultural interests in Schuyler county. He 
owns a good farm which is pleasantiv situ- 
ated a mile and a half from Monterey in the 
direction of W'atkins. lie also has a black- 
smith shop and in it he conducts blacksmith- 
ing and wagonmaking, and to some extent 
he follows carpentering and joining in this 
county. His life is t)ne of uiuiring activity. 
.';nd thmughout his business career he has 
manifestetl that industry which is a sure 
foundation of business success. 



440 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Grove C. Horning, a son of Hampton 
and Pliilena (Miller) Horning, was born in 
Monterey, January 9, 1853. His father re- 
moA'ed from Orange county, New York, to 
Monterey, and by his marriage to Miss Mil- 
ler he became the father of three chiUlren : 
Grove C. Doris and Menzo. The last named 
married Milla McConnell, and is a resident 
of Dundee, where he is following the car- 
penter's trade. They have three children. 

Under the parental roof Grove C. Horn- 
ing spent the days of liis minority and as- 
sisted in the work of the home farm, while 
at the same time he mastered the common 
branches of Enghsh learning taught in the 
public schools. He is a natural mechanic and 
has mastered the trades of carpentering, 
Avagon-making and blacksmithing, all of 
which he follows to a greater or less extent 
and is thus closely associated with the in- 
dustrial interests in his native county. He 
IS a thorough workman, having gained prac- 
tical experience of these lines of industrial 
activity, and he now owns a good blacksmith 
and wagon shop upon his farm, where he 
does all kinds of repair work. His tract of 
land, comprising thirty-three acres, is pleas- 
antly and con\eniently located a mile and a 
half from Monterey.toward Watkins, and he 
has placed his fields under a high state of 
cultivation so that they annually return to 
him good harvests. This brings to him a 
gratifying income and at the same time his 
mechanical work contriljutes not a little to 
his support. 

In 1H77 Mr. Horning was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Rachel W^olverton. Her ])ar- 
cnts, Jf^nathan and Rebecca \Volverton, re- 
side at Bradford. They have eight children : 
Joel, who married Elizabeth Crance, by 
whom he has one child, lives in Orange and 
is a well-tc-do farmer. Their son T<'hn re- 



sides with them ai home, ^\'illiam, the sec- 
ond member of the \\'olverton family, is liv- 
ing in Michigan, lia\ing left home many 
years ago. Frank is the next younger. Je- 
rusha is the wife of Alfred Crosson, a resi- 
dent of Steuben, New York, and they have 
three children, ^^'illiam, Henry and James. 
Call, the next member of the \\'olverton fam- 
ily, is deceased. Ardelia is living in the town 
of Monterey. Jane E. has also passed away, 
and Rachel E. is the wife of our subject. 

Mr. and !Mrs. Horning began their 
domestic life in Monterey and have since 
lived in this locality. They hold membership 
in the Methodist church, and Mr. Homing 
exercises his right of franchise in support of 
the men and measures of the Democracy. 
They have one daughter, Eva. now the wife 
of Ciilbert Mathews, of Monterey, by whom 
she has two children, a son and daughter, 
Mvrl .and Mvrtie Marie. 



:\I. B. HUGHE Y. 

It is always of interest to examine into 
the history of a self-made man, to learn of the 
methods he has followed, to investigate the 
l>rinciples which have been the strong ele- 
ments in securing his advancement and suc- 
cess. Mv. Hughey is one who has passed on 
life's journey many who started out \\ ith him 
or ahead of him. He certainly is deserving 
of credit for what he has accomplished and 
well merits the regard of the public who 
number liim among the leading mechants of 
Watkins, where he is engaged in dealing in 
boots and shoes. 

Mr. Hughey was born in Townsend. 
Schuyler county, .^pril 4, 1867, and is a son 
■ f T")r. T,vnian and Hannah A. (Brown) 




M. B. HUGHEY 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



443 



IIuj?lie\-. He was only six montlis old wlien 
liis parents removed to Watkins. After a 
few years his father's Iiealth failed and he 
purcliased a stock farm at Mecklenburg, 
where, owing- to the outdo(5r life and exercise, 
he regained his iiealth. He then returned to 
Watkins where he spent his remaining days 
liracticing his profession here with success 
for about fifteen or sixteen years. 

Mr. Hughey of this review was a lad of 
eight years when the famil}' returned to \\'at- 
kins. and in the public schools he acquired 
his education. \Vhen fourteen years of age 
he began clerking in a shoe store for John 
Budd and was thus employed for se\-en 
years, after which he became a partner with 
Mr. Pellet in a shoe store, the relation be- 
tween them being maintained for nine years, 
and in i8gS he purchased his partner's in- 
terest and is now controlling the best shoe 
trade in Schuyler county. The business has 
shouii a gratifying increase each year. His 
store is well equipped with a fine and care- 
fully selected stock of everything found in 
that line and his growing business brings ti> 
him a very gratifying patronage. 

Mr. Hughey was married in Watkins, 
October 25, 1888, to Miss [Margaret Haring, 
of this city, a daughter of George and Sarah 
(Canfield) Haring. The lady is a graduate 
of St. Ursiline convent, of Chatham. Can- 
ada, and is a native of the village in which she 
yet makes her home. By her marriage she 
has become the mother of one son, George 
Haring Hughey, who was born in Watkins, 
August 9, 1895. I^otli ^fr. and ^Irs. Hughey 
are members of the Presbyterian church, and 
he belongs to Jefferson Lodge, Xo. 332. F. 
& A..M.. of Watkins; and Watkins chapter, 
No. 182, R. A. M.. in which he has occupied 
a number of important offices. He likewise 
belongs to St. Oiuer's Commandery Xo. 19. 



K. T.. of Elmira, and Kalurah Temple of the 
Mystic Shrine at Binghaniton. He was a 
charter member of the Business J^Ien's Asso- 
ciation, w hich includes every business man 
of commercial rating in Watkins and was its 
first president. His attention has been large- 
ly given to his business affairs and he has 
been successful chiefly by reason of the fact 
of his natural ability and his close applica- 
tion to the line of labor in which as a young 
man he embarked. 



. WASI-IIXGTOX A. CROUT. 

Among the native sons oi Scliuyler coun- 
ty now living within its Ixjrders is Washing- 
ton A. Crout. The fact tlint man\- who ha\e 
lieen bom in this part of the state still reside 
here is evidence that Schuyler and sur- 
lounding counties offer excellent opportuni- 
ties to their sons. :\Ir. Crout follows farm- 
ing with good success, his rich fields being 
l-roductive and returning a good income for 
liie care and labor bestowed upbn theiu. 

Our subject was born at Beaver Dams on 
the 14th of March, 1844, and is a son of 
Abraham P. Crout, a native of Germanv. 
After emigrating to the new world the father 
took up his abode in the Empire state, set- 
tling at Bea\er Dams at a \ery early day. He 
wedded Elizabeth Vandine, a native of Hol- 
land, and their children were Annie. Eliza- 
beth, Mary Maria, Catherine Jane and 
Washington A. 

The last named was reared under the 
parental roof and pursued his education in 
liie common schools until scxentecu years of 
age, when he started out upon his business 
career, securing a situation in the employ of 
the Erie Railroad Company as a fireman. 



444 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



He worked there for four years and then en- 
tered the army, for the country had hecome 
involved in war over the slavery question, 
resulting in an attempt at secession made by 
various southern states. On the 6th of No- 
veniber, 1861, Mr. Crout was enrolled as a 
member of Company I, Eighty-sixth Regi- 
ment of Xew York Volunteers, known as the 
Steuben Rangers. He participated in many 
of the most hotly contested engagements of 
the war, including the battle of Bull Run, 
August 30, 1862; Fredericksburg. December 
13. 1862; Chanccllorsville. May 2 and 3, 
1863: Beverly's Ford, June 9; Gettysburg, 
on the 1st. 2<\ and j^d of July; Wappington. 
^'irgihia, July 2^; Auburn, \'irginia. in the 
same year; Kelly's Lord, on the 7th of Xo- 
xember ; Locust's Grove, on the 27th of No- 
vember; and Mine Run. on the 30th of No- 
vember, 1863. On the 5th of May. 1864. he 
entered the battle of the Wilderness which 
was continued through five successive days, 
and he was also in the second battle of Bull 
Run. In the battle of the Wilderness he was 
wounded in the hip. and sixteen years after- 
ward a piece of the Inillet came out of the 
other hip. Mr. Crout made for himself a 
most creditable record as a soldier, being 
always found at his post of duty in defense 
of the old flag and ne\cr wavering in de- 
fense of the cause which was represented by 
the starry banner. 

After his return home Mr. Crout re- 
sumed work at Beaver Dams. He is now 
known as a representative farmer of his na- 
tive county, his home being in Catharine 
township near Odessa, where he has eighty 
acres of land which are under a high state of 
cultivation. He was united in marriage to 
Miss Sarah H. Cronk. and unto them were 
born seven cliildren : I'.urton. the eldest, 
married Maggie Bowman, and resides at 



Beaver Dams. Schuyler county. Their chil- 
dren are Albert, Julia, Georgia, Bertha and 
Jennie. Mertie, the second member of our 
subject's family, is deceased. Adelbert B. 
married Anna Stanley and resides at Alpine, 
New York. Frederick D. is engaged in the 
manufacture of paper at Palmer Falls, near 
Saratoga, New York. Charles H. is a mem- 
ber of Company G of the Twenty-seventh 
Regiment of L'nited States Troops and is an 
engineer, doing ser\ ice on Mindanao island. 
Horace D. is engaged in farming on his fa- 
ther's place. Seymour, the youngest, is also 
imder the parental roof. Henry Cronk, the 
father of Mrs. Crout, married Eliza Melissa 
W'akley. and their children are Sarah H.. 
Janet and Dewitt. Of these, Janet is the wife 
of ^^'arren Lanning and lives iu the town of 
Enneld, Tompkins county, while Dewitt lives 
in ^Montour Falls. He married .Anna .\ustin 
and follow s carpentering, farming and other 
pursuits. 

For almost sixty years Washington A. 
Crout has made his home in the county of his 
nativity and therefore witnessed much of its 
its progress and development. He has seen 
many changes which have wrought great im- 
provement iiere and has taken a deep interest 
in all that has pertained to the general good. 
He has carried on his work energetically and 
untiringly and his efforts have resulted in 
bringing to him creditable ami well merited 
success. 



JON ATM. \N I'AGE. 

Jonathan Page, a representative of the 
farming interests in Dix township, was born 
m Warren county, New York, on the banks 
of Lake George, Novem1)er 27, 1828. He 
])ursued a con^mon-sciiool education and at 



TPIE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



445 



the age of thirteen put aside liis text-books 
ill onler to become a factor in tlie business 
world. Since the age of sixteen lie has been 
dependent upon liis own resources and de- 
serves crecHt for the success which he lias 
achie\ed as the years have passed liv. In 
1844 he arrived in Steuben cmmty. Xew 
York, where he began learning the trade of 
wagon-making and blacksniithing in the 
town of Wayne. He finished his appren- 
ticeship and fur a number of years he suc- 
cessfully followed those pursuits. 

On the 1st of January, 1849, ^^f- ^^^S^ 
was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Rob- 
Iyer, and on the ist of April of the same year 
he erected a building on tlie site of the pres- 
ent post otike of Watkins. There he lived 
and carried on his shop near by, continuing 
as an acti\e representative of the blacksmith's 
trade at this [ilace until 1859, when on ac- 
count of failing health he was obliged to 
abandon his chosen pursuit. He then turned 
his attention to carpentering, which he fol- 
lowed until his health became so poor that he 
was forced to retire altogether from active 
business. In 1870-71 he built and owned 
the present property of the post office, which 
is now owned by the firm of Koon & Havens. 
On the 17th of .\pril, 1871, this building was 
chosen for post office purposes and has since 
been used in this way. 

In 1858 Mr. I'age was called upon to 
mourn the loss of his first wife, who died on 
the •16th of September of that year, leaving 
two daugliters : .\deline. born September 
2h, i8.i<); and Margaret, who was born July 
25, 185J. The former became the wife of 
Elijah Lovell, who was a boatman by occu- 
j>ation and died February 16, 1887. They 
resided in Ithaca, Xew ^'ork, where Mrs. 
Lovell is still living. Her chiltlrcn are as 
follows: Fred, Edgar. John, Nettie, Claude, 



Samniie. Maggie and .\rtliur. Margaret .\. 
I'age, the t)tlier daughter born of tjur sub- 
ject's first marriage became the wife of Sam- 
I'.el Phillii)s and they reside in Lewistown. 
lergus cinmty, Montana. They have six 
children : Lizzie, John, May, Mary, Delia 
Mid Robert, all of whom are still in school. 

On the 1 6th of November, i860, Jona- 
than Page, of this review, was again mar- 
ried, his second union being with Emily J. 
Deny, who dieil on the 9lh of May, 1881. 
His daughter Margaret then retunie<l home, 
acting as her father's housekeeper until 1883. 
On the 1st of June, 1884, he married Mrs. 
Samantha M. (Scott) Hulett. Her father. 
Abraham H. Scott, was born in the town of 
Cobelskill, Schoharie county, New York. 
Mrs. Page first married Charles Hulett, 
whose birth occurred in the town of Reading, 
Scliuvler county, New York, then Steuben 
countv. flic following are the children of 
Abraham 11. Scott: Judson, Sarah, .\bra- 
ham, Samantha, Maria and Adelbert, all de- 
ceased but Abraham and Samantha. Of this 
family Abraham now lives in Omaha, Ne- 
braska, being in the employ of the gov- 
ernment in the chief quartermaster's 
office. In 1 86 1, in response to his coun- 
try's call for aid, he joined the Union 
army, and in a bailie was shot in the 
breast, the ball passing clear through the 
body to the vertebra and then falling down 
the entire length of that series of bones. For 
twelve days lie lay on the battle-field, and 
was then carried to l-'airfa.x hospital. .M-- 
though so seriously injured he eventually re- 
covered and has since been in the government 
service. 

On the I.St of June, 1863, there was issued 
an order that a draft should be made. There 
v.ere eighty-four men replied to the draft in 
the town of Dix. and nf these fortv-oiie 



446 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



\\ould later be called to fill tlie quota. Feel- 
ing certain that he would be drafted and 
knowing that he could get a bounty of one 
thousand dollars, just before the June call 
Mr. Page enlisted for a year or during the 
war, becoming a member of Company K, 
First New "^'ork \''eteran Cavalry, with 
wliich he remained until the ist of June, 
]865. The war having closed he thai re- 
turned to the north, reaching home on the 
29th of June. He had three brothers and a 
nephew who were also in the army. His 
brother was shot all to pieces in the battle of 
the A\'ilderness. Flis other relatives were 
never lieard from after tliat battle, so that 
Jonathan Page was the only one to return 
home. Long a resident of Schuyler county, 
he has a wide acquaintance here. His life 
has been honorable and upright, and he has 
ever been faithful to his duty to his fellow 
men and to his country. A strong defender 
of the cause of teinperance, he now votes with 
the Prohibition party. 



JOHN RANDALL 



John Randall was born on tlie ist of May, 
1844, in tlie tov.'n of Milo, Yates county. 
New York. The Randrdl family was 
founded in the Empire state at a very early 
day, and the fatlier of our subject. West- 
brook Randall, was born in Chemung coun- 
ty. He wedded Leona Baker, a native of 
Steuben county, and they became the parents 
of eight children, of whom Benjamin, 
Charles and Amanda are all now deceased, 
and Adeline has likewise passed away. The 
others are John. Emily A., Sarah and Fran- 
ces. The last named is the wife of Fred -Ar- 
nold, who is proprietor of a boarding house 
in Penn Yan. New York. 



Mr. Randall, of this review, pursued a 
Common-school education and was ejirly 
trained to farm life, assisting in the task of 
cultivating his father's land throughout the 
summer months during the period of his 
•youth. At the age of seventeen years, how- 
ever, he put aside tiie work of tiie farm and 
all other personal considerations, and with 
patriotic spirit responded to his country's 
call for aid, enlisting on the 9th of October, 
1S61, as a member of Company I, Eighty- 
sixth New York Regiment, under the com- 
mand of Captain Sherwood. Throughout 
the remainder of the war he was at the front, 
faithfully defending the old llag. and among 
tlic important engagements in which he par- 
ticipated were the second battle of Bull Run 
and the battles of Cliancellorsville and Fred- 
ericksburg. Later he served for two years 
V. ith the First District Ca\alry and was in a 
great many skirmislies under Sheridan, being 
with that general until the surrender of the 
Confederate troops. When hostilities ceased 
and his country no longer needed his service 
Mr. Randall received an honorable discharge 
in September. 1865. and returned to his farm 
viork in New York. He has always carried 
on agricultural pursuits and since 1892 he 
has resided in Schuyler county, now making 
his home at Monterey, where he has one hun- 
dred and twenty acres of valuable land, well 
cultivated and highly improved with all the 
modern accessories and equipments of a 
model farm. 

On the 26th of November. 1890, ^Ir. 
Randall was united in marriage to Miss 
Clarissa D. Robbins, a daughter of John and 
Lydia (Miller) Roljbins, in whose family 
were four children : Martha Adriana, Hu- 
lett. Wanvick and Clarissa. The last named 
giving lier hand in marriage to Mr. Randall, 
has Ijecome the molher of six children, as 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



447 



follows: Samuel J., Florence A., Allison C, 
Alvira, Mora M. and John W'., all of whom 
are under the parental roof, the family circle 
leing- yet unl)roken by the hand of death. 
Mr. Randall is widely known as one of the 
enterprising, practical agriculturists of his 
community, and his business affairs are ably 
conducted, his sound judgment and indefati- 
gable enterprise bringing to him well merited 
success. 



HEXRI BELMONT LaRUE. 

For many years Henri Dclniont LaRue 
has been well known in railroad circles, for 
as a traveling salesman he handles materials 
which find their purchasers among the rail- 
road companies. Traveling widely over this 
country he has gained that broad informa- 
tion and culture which only Iraxel can bring, 
and wherever he goes he makes friends. 
X'uml)ered among the respected and leading 
citizens of Schuyler county, he well deserves 
representation in this volume. 

Mr. Lalvue is a native of New York city, 
born on the 19th of September, 1848. His 
parents were William C. and Julia LaRue, 
and the ancestrj' of the family can be traced 
back through many generations to the year 
1640, when the ship Caledonia sailed from 
Glasgow for New York, lea\-ing the former 
port in August and reaching the Atlantic 
coast of America in October. In a gale the 
ship was blown up the Raritan river and 
struck upon the oyster beds at South Amboy. 
New Jersev, which caused it to sink. Aboard 
were many families of different nationalities. 
Some of these managed to make their way to 
the shore and liecame the first settlers of New 
Jersey. The LaRue family is of Holland 
nnd iM-c'M-h <!<*<(-e'i!. It was their intention 



lo settle at New Rochclie, New York, but 
that shipwreck changed their plans and they 
became residents of the site of Freehold, New 
jersey. 

Henri B. LaRue received his early edu- 
cation in the public schools and then entered 
ihe University of the State of New York at 
New York city. He was graduated in the 
medical department of that institution in the 
class of 1864, at the age of sixteen years, but 
never engaged in the practice of medicine. 
His collegiate work being completed, he ac- 
cepted a position as fireman on the Erie Rail- 
road and within sc\'en weeks was promoted 
to engineer, running for about five years on 
the Sus(|uehanna division. Through the 
agency of Jay Gould he was appointed super- 
intendent of the Nev.' York lines of what is 
now the Lehigh Railroad system, and re- 
mained in that capacity until Mr. Gould re- 
siened ihc nresidencv of the road. Mr. La- 
Rue then becajne a traveling salesman, first 
representing the Brooks Locomotive Works 
and later in addition the Midvale Iron Works 
of Philadelphia, selling locomotives, steel 
forgings, bridges and other railroad equip- 
ments of a similar character. He ne.xt en- 
tered the service of the Morden Frog & 
Crossing Works of Chicago, Illinois, for 
which firm he traveled three years, selling 
frogs and crossings. The volume of the 
business which he controlled was extensive. 
Later he joined the Richmond Locomotive 
Company, with which he remaine<l until Au- 
gust, iQor, when he entered the selling de- 
partment of the United States S^eel Corpora- 
tion as its railroad division superintendent, 
which position he is now filling, and in this 
capacity he travels all over the United States. 

On the 20th of November. 187 J, Mr. La- 
Rue was united in marriage to Miss Minnie 
Crandall, and to them have been born two 



448 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



cliiklren : Belmont ^il., a resident of New 
York city and traveling auditor for the Char- 
tered Accountant Companj' of London, Eng- 
land, taking inventories and reporting finan- 
cial status of railroads, syndicates, trusts. 
etc. ; and Benjamin Frank, who after prac- 
ticing law in Sufferns, New York, was a])- 
pointed attorney and claim agent of the Erie 
Railroad and is now filling that position. 

Mrs. LaRue is a daughter of Laban B. 
and Susan (Searles) Crandall. The Cran- 
dail family is of Puritan origin and was 
founded in Dutchess county, New York, at 
a very early day. Three brothers. Benjamin,* 
I.aban and Richard Crandall, joined the pa- 
triotic army in the war of the Revolution. 
They had formerly been in the British serv- 
ice, but deserting the Royalist cause, they 
fought for American independence. .\n 
interesting incident in the army life of Ben- 
jamin Crandall, the grandfather of Mrs. La- 
Rue, was often related by her father. For 
several nights the ])ickets at a certain post 
were killed while t)n duty. At length Ben- 
jamin Crand.'dl \olunteered to do picket duly 
one night, that he might find the cause for 
this, and late in the night when a hog came 
grunting and rooting around he became sus- 
picious and shot it, as he said "he did not 
v.ant a hog annoying him," and it was found 
that a British soldier was disguised in the 
hog's skin. After that no more pickets were 
kdled at that place. After leaving the serv- 
ice Benjamin Crandall entered the Baptist 
ministry and engaged in preaching through- 
out the remainder of his life. His children 
were John, .Archibald, Laban Benjamin. Lew- 
man, Hannah, Amanda, Maria and Betsy 
Ann. In 1815 Laban Benjamin Crandall. 
the father of Mrs. LaRue, settled near Peach 
Orchard in Seneca county, where he lived for 
three years, then went to Daggett's Mill. 



where he remained for five years. On the 
expiration of that period he went to Wells- 
borough, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, and 
three years later removed to New Y'ork city, 
where the following year was spent. His 
ne.xt home was in the city of Millsport. and 
from there he came to Montour Falls, wdiere 
he spent the remainder of his life. Laban B. 
Crandall had four children, namely : Nancy 
Jane, Daniel Ely, Diantha Susan and Minnie, 
now Mrs. LaRue. Daniel Ely married Elva 
Hughey and had three children, Minnie E.. 
Charles Ellsworth and Laban B. Diantha 
Susan became the \\ife of James H. Scoot, 
;uid their children are ^^'infred. Edna. \''esta 
and Walter. 



CHARLES HARIXG. 

Tn the history of those who have l)een 
recognized as leading citizens of Schuyler 
county in its past as well as present Charles 
Haring .should be mentioned. He was born 
in the town of Reading, Schuyler county, 
h'ebruary 11, 1838, his parents being \\'illiam 
and Eliza (Cox) Haring. In the schools of 
Watkins he obtained his education, for his 
parents took up their abode in this village 
when he was but three years of age. His 
father was engaged in the dn-go<.)ds business, 
and after putting aside his text lx)oks Charles 
Haring joined his father in conducting that 
enterprise, and when the father retired 
( "harles and his brother George became the 
owners of the store, which they conducted 
successfully for a number of years. They 
\\ ere wide-awake .ind enterprising merchants 
and kept abreast with the progressive spirit 
of the times and their store received a large 
share of the public patronage, because their 
business methods were honorable ;uid their 



4 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



449 



line of goods sucli as will draw tiie trade from 
the best class of people. 

On the 6th of January, 1864, Mr. Raring 
^vas united in marriage to Miss Jane M 
Shepherd, a daughter of John and Xancy J. 
(.\twood) Shepherd. Mrs. Haring is also 
a native of ihe town of Reading. Her father 
was bom in North Haven, Connecticut, ami 
came to the town of Reading with an uncle 
and aunt. Mr. and Mrs. hllnier Keeler. with 
whom he lived as their own son. He devoted 
his entire time and attention through his 
business career to agricultural pursuits and 
he gave his political support to the Republi- 
can party. He never sought office and was 
modest and retiring in disposition, but was 
regarded as one of the best citizens of this 
town, his genuine worth commending him to 
the confidence of all with whom he came in 
contact. He died August 26, 1888, at the 
age of eighty-one years, his hirlii having oc- 
curred April 27, 1809. His wife, who was 
l>orn March 19. 1822, died January 17, 1898. 
She was a daughter of Harlow and Naomi 
(Phillips) Atwood, in whose family were the 
following named : Nancy J., Mary Ann, 
Harlow, Elizabeth, and one son that died in 
infancy. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. 
Haring was a sailor and on one occasion his 
vessel was captured and the crew thrown into 
a French prison, where they lay for a long 
time. Her uncle. Mr. Keeler, was drafted 
for service in the war of 181 2 but did not en- 
ter the army. The children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Shepherd were: Jane Miles, I'rank Roselle 
and Esther Jacoi)s. now Mrs. Frank Sayre, 
of Dundee. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Haring was 
blessed with two sons, John Shepherd, born 
April ro, 1866: and William Sherwood, 
born November 9. 1867, and now a druggist 
cf Chicago. In his political \ icws Mr, Har- 



ing was an earnest Democmi. his study of 
the questions of the day led him to give an 
unfaltering sui)iH)rt to the principles of his 
l)arty because he believes it contains the best 
elements of good government. At one time 
he held ilie office of town clerk. He attaided 
the Presbyterian church, antl although not a 
member he contributed to its support and co- 
operated in many other ways in the promo- 
tion of the best interests of his locality. In 
business affairs he was notably prompt, en- 
ergetic and reliable, and he possessed many 
sterling traits of character that commended 
him to the confidence and good will of those 
with whom he was associated. 



JOHN L.\CKERBY. 

Among the leading and inllucntial busi- 
ness men of Alpine is nunil)ered John Lack- 
erby, who is there engaged in merchandising. 
This is his native place, his birth having here 
occurred on the i ith of May, 1844. His fa- 
ther, William Lackerl)y. was also born in 
Alpine in the year 181 3, and after he had at- 
tained to man's estate he wedded Mary L. 
Wakeman. Unto them were born eight chil- 
dren : John. ; Burr, now deceased ; William ; 
Elizabeth, who is also deceased ; Anna ; Cath- 
erine and Fred P., who are deceased; and 
Mary Jane. Of those still living William 
married Depem Mi.x. .\nna is the wife of 
John J. Charles and resides in Odessa. They 
have four children — Adie. the wife of Leon 
^\'a.shburn ; Grace: Catherine: and Piurr. 
Mary Jane, the youngest member of the 
Lackerl)y family, is the wife of E. L. Wood, 
of Aspen, Colorado, and they have five chil- 
dren : Chapman. Rob, Harry, .\lto and Burr, 
r.r home. 



4SO 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Xo e\ent oi special importance occurred 
to var}- the routine of life for John Lackerby 
in his youtli. Like most boys of the period 
he pursued a common-school educati(3n, leav- 
ing school at the age of eighteen years. This 
Avas immediately followed by an important 
step in his life and indicated the strength of 
his character as well as his patriotic devotion 
to his country. On the 2ist of August, 1862, 
he donned the blue uniform of the nation and 
joined Company B of tlie One Hundred and 
Forty-first New York Infantry, under the 
command of Captain Andrew J. Compton. 
He participated in the battle of Lookout 
Mountain, and being taken ill he was sent to 
the hospital, where he remained for three 
months. He afterward joined his command 
in North Carolina, and having participated 
in the campaign of that state, he then re- 
turned to Washington, D. C. where he par- 
ticipated in the grand review, tiie most cele- 
brated military pageant ever seen on the 
western hemisphere. Company after com- 
pany, regiment alter regiment, and corps 
pfter corps of the victorious army marched 
down Pennsylvania avenue and passed the 
re\-iewing stand which had been erected on 
the White House grounds and from which 
the president viewed the marching of his vic- 
torious troops. Mr. Lackerby was then 
mustered out and with a most creditable mili- 
tary record he returned to his home after re- 
ceiving his honorable discharge in June, 
1S65. 

The following year !Mr. Lackerby was 
united in marriage to Cornelia Evans, of 
Richbury, I'ennsylvania, a daughter of John 
J. Evans, whose children were as follows : 
Richard, of Wa\erly, New York, who mar- 
ried Mary Chamlx;rlain and has four chil- 
dren. Belle, Hattie. Clarence and Mattie; 
George, who is deceased ; John, who resides 



in Elmira, New York; Caroline; Samuel; 
and Hattie, the wife of Francis Burt, of Port 
Allegheny, Pennsylvania, by whom she has 
four children, Prentiss, \\'illiam, I-'rank and 
Burton. 

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lack- 
erby began their domestic life in Alpine, New 
"!i'ork, in the .spring of 1867. Here they have 
lesided continuously since. 'Mr. Lackerby is 
well known as a prominent and influential 
business man of the village. He conducts a 
general store, in which he is meeting with 
creditable and well deserved success, carry- 
ing a large and well selected stock of goods. 
His earnest desire to please his patrons, his 
honorable business methods and his prompt- 
ness and reliability have secured to him a lib- 
eral patronage. In his political views he is 
a Republican, earnest and unfaltering in his 
support of the principles of the party. 



JOHN ALFRED BOYD. 

John Alfred Boyd is a representative of 
tlie industrial interests of Schuyler county, 
l;eing now engaged in the manufacture of 
shingles in Reynoldsville. His life history 
l)roves that energy, strong determination and 
laudable ambition may win success, for it has 
Ijeen these qualities that !Mr. Boyd has ex- 
ercised in gaining a creditable position in 
the world of trade. He was born in the town 
of Hector, Schuyler county, on the ist of 
January, 1854, and is a son of John and 
Eliza (Ruth) Boyd, but both of his parents 
were natives of England, and, crossing the 
Atlantic to the new world, they took up their 
abode in the town of Hector, where the fa- 
ther died during the early boyhood of our 
subject. The mother still survives at the age 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



45» 



of seventy-nine years and is living in the u>\\ n 
ot Hector. 

Mr. Boyd, of this review, is indebted to 
tlie pubh'c scliools of Hector township for the 
educational privileges which he enjoyed' in 
iiis youtli. He entered upon his business 
c.'u"ccr in connection wiili farming and 
throughout his life has given his attention in 
a greater or less degree to agricultural pur- 
suits. lM>r twenty years he has also engaged 
in the manufacture of shingles and later 
added to this industry the making of grape 
baskets. In the latter work he was associ- 
.ited with his brother-in-law, James Stillwell. 
Me is now carrying on the shingle business 
alone, turning out about three hundred thou- 
sand shingles annually. His mill is equipped 
with ini])roved machinery and with every 
facility for doing good work and he has se- 
cured a large patronage, which has made his 
industry an important one in the community. 
.Mr. Hoyd is a man of go<id business ability, 
(:uick to recognize an opportunity and to 
utilize it when he can gain the best results. 
He is, moreover, strictly fair and honorable 
in all his trade relations with his fellow men 
aritl therefore his prosperity is richly merited. 

On the 22d of December. 1876, occurred 
the marriage of Air. Boyd and Miss Ida 
I'lorine Stillwell. a daughter of William and 
Jane (Dean) Stillwell. Unto them have 
been born two children : LeElla, who died 
June 7, 1902, when in her twenty-first year: 
and William J., who is his father's assistant 
in business. >dr. Boyd has a pleasant home 
and owns twenty-three acres of land. He 
exercises his right of franchise in support of 
the men and measures of the Republican 
party, but the honors and emoluments of 
office have no attraction -for him, as he pre- 
fers to give his attention to his business af- 
fairs. He attends the Methodist Episcopal 

26 



church, and matters pertaining to tlie welfare 
of his community receive not only his en- 
dorsement but his earnest support. I le is 
honored and respected by all not alone on ac- 
count of the success he has achieved but also 
because of the honorable, straightforward 
I)usiness polic\- lie has ever followed. 



EMERSON J. MACK. 

There is probaI)Iy no better criterian of 
the growing and prosperous condition of a 
town or city than its hotel interests. The 
town which is self -centered, having no con- 
nection with the outside world, is unprogres- 
si\e, its business stagnates and its residents 
l)ecome lacking in enterprise, but if connected 
with outside affairs, travel and commerce 
add new life and energy, and there is a de- 
mand for entertainment on the part of the 
A'isitors. which makes good hotels a necessity. 
Mr. Mack is doing much to sustain the ex- 
cellent reputation of Montour I'^alls in this 
respect, being proprietor of the Montour 
House, a splendid hostelry which receives a 
good patronage because it is so well con- 
ducted. He is a genial host, commanding 
the high regard of all with whom he has been 
brought in contact. 

Mr. Mack was born in the town of I'rank- 
fort, Herkimer county, New York, August 
23, 1853, and is a son of Henry H. and Mary 
J. (Dana) Mack. His ancestral history can 
be traced back to a very early epoch in this 
country and brings the family into close con- 
nection with pioneer times and experiences 
when this now ])opulous portion of the coun- 
try was wild ;uiil unimproved and was the 
haimt of many redmen. His grandfather 
was scalped by the Indians and after being 



452 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



tluis wounded, he walked three miles before 
he received any meilical assistance. He finally 
(lied from the efifects of the injury. By oc- 
cupation he was a farmer, following that pur- 
suit throughout his entire business career. 
He had five children : Everett, who is now 
living in West Caton, New York; Henry 
IL; Irene, the wife of Chester Prine, a resi- 
dent of Herkimer county, New York ; Al- 
vira H., who is living in Utica, New York ; 
and William, who is also a resident of Utica. 

Henry H. Mack, the father of our sub- 
ject, was born in Connecticut and came to 
the town of Frankfort, Herkimer county, 
New York, in 1800, with his uncle and aunt, 
the journey being made in a sleigh with 
wooden ninners and hauled by a yoke of 
oxen. He was uniteil in marriage to Mary 
J. Dana and their children were Everett, 
Emerson J., Alvin H., Irene and Will. In 
pioneer times the family lived in New York, 
witnessing its growth and development as it 
emerged from primitive conditions to take 
its place as the greatest state of the Union. 

Mr. Mack of this review pursued his edu- 
cation in the public schools near his home and 
when sixteen years of age he put aside his 
text books and engaged in the stone business 
in company with his brother. Pie continued 
in this enterprise for ten years and then 
turned his attention to the hoted business, be- 
coming the proprietor of a hostelry in Lowell, 
Oneida county, New York. There he re- 
mained for about three years, after which he 
purchased a hotel at Verona, conducting it 
for one year. He rented that property the 
next year and then sold it to George Whaley, 
after which he removed to W'est Eaton, 
Madison county. New York, and bought a 
hotel which he conducted for about twelve 
years. During this time he had charge of 
the state waters, being appointed to that po- 



sition under David B. Hill. After resigning 
tiiat position he was appointed deputy sheritt 
of Madison county under Charles E. Rem- 
mick, and acted in that capacity for three 
years, discharging his duties with promptness 
and fidelity unmarked by either fear or favor. 
On retiring from the office he went to Utica 
ar.d again became connected with the hotel 
business, conducting the new American 
Hotel at that place for one year. He then 
opened the Dudlej' House in the same city 
and was its proprietor for five years. In 
1900 he came to Montour Falls and pur- 
chased the Montour House, containing 
seventy-two rooms. It is a large brick struc- 
ture, being one of the most magnificent hotel 
buildings in this part of the .state. There are 
no back rooms, all being equally pleasant, 
well lighted and well ventilated. He receives 
the transient patronage of the village and 
also the patronage of the traveling public to 
a large extent. He is a genial host, putting 
forth every effort to please his patrons 
and to promote their comfort and wel- 
fare. In manner he is kindly, courte- 
ous and obliging, and these qualities have 
made him very popular, gaining for him 
many friends among those with whom he is 
brought in contact. In the hotel is a ball- 
room, fifty by sixty feet, and many pleasant 
social functions of the city are therein held. 
Mr. Mack was united in marriage to Miss 
Eliza L. Johnson, a daughter of George and 
Elizabeth (Latlis) Johnson. Their union has 
been blessed with one daughter. May. who 
is at home. In his political views Mr. Mack 
is a Democrat where questions of national 
and state imixirtance are concerned, but at 
local elections where no issue is involved he 
votes independently of party tie. considering 
only the capability of the candidate. He is 
a member of the Independent Order of Odd 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



453 



Fellows, belonging to Glenn Lodge, No. 312, 
of Eaton, Xew York. He also belongs to the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen at that 
place and holds membership relations with 
the Knights of Pythias fraternity of Montour 
Falls. Starting out in life for himself at an 
early age, Mr. Mack has steadily advanced 
in business. He found the opportunities he 
sought — which by the way are always open 
to the ambitious, energetic man — and mak- 
ing the best of these he has steadily worked 
his way upward. He possesses resolution, 
])erseverance and reliability and his name is 
now on the roles of the best citizens of 
Schuyler county. 



JAMES H. CORBY. 



James H. C<jrby, whose farming inter- 
ests have made him a substantial citizen of 
Catharine township. Schuyler county, was 
born on the 21st of December, 1842. His 
father, Cornelius Corby, was a native of New 
Jersey and was united in marriage to Esther 
Hemingway. They became the parents of 
six children: James H., William, David, 
Albert, Harriet A. and Hannah. Of this 
number, David, who is now living in Horse- 
heads, Chemung county. New York, married 
Sarah Carmen and has two children, Lizzie 
and Nellie. Harriet A. married Cyrus H. 
Webb and has four children, Clarence H., 
William, George and Esther M. They make 
their home in Athens, Pennsylvania. W'ill- 
iam Corby was a member of Company K, 
I'ifticth Pennsylvania Infantry under com- 
mand of Captain Ingham during the Civil 
war and. died of apoplexy in February, 1902. 
Albert Corby enlisted in Company C, One 
Hundred and Fortv-first Pcnnsvlvania Vol- 



unteer Infantry, and was killed by an over- 
dose of medicine administered by a doctor 
during his army experience. 

Entering the public schools at the age of 
si.v years James H. Corby therein pursued 
his studies until he reached the age of four- 
teen years. He then began to earn his own 
living and for four years he was employed as 
a farm hand by the month. He then joined 
the army in defense of the L'nion cause, en- 
listing in Company C of the One Hundred 
and Forty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers 
under the command of Captain A. J. Swartz. 
With that regiment he remained until hon- 
orably discharged on the i8th of July, 1865, 
being dismissed from the service because of 
the close of the war. He participated in the 
important engagements of Fredericksburg 
and Chancellorsville and at the latter he was 
wounded in the hand which caused the loss 
of one of his fingers. His head was also in- 
jured, occasioning deafness. He remained 
in the hospital for six months and was then 
transferred to the \^eteran Reserve Corps, 
with which he did some light work around 
Washington. He could easily ha\e won his 
discharge but he preferred to remain with 
the army until the preservation of the Union 
was an assured fact. 

After tiie close of the war Mr. Corljy re- 
turned to Bradford county, Pennsylvania, 
where he lived for five years. He then came 
to Catharine, Schuyler county. New York, 
where he has since made his home. On the 
4th of April. 1877. he was uiiited in marriage 
to Miss Malissa Beardsley. with whom he 
traveled life's journey for aljout twelve years. 
She was then taken from him by death on the 
1st of May, 1889, and on the 2Sth of Sep- 
tember, iSgr. he was again married, his .sec- 
ond union being with Charlotte Hunt, with 
whom he is now living upon his farm in 



454 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Catharine township. In his pohtical views 
Mr. Corby is a RepubHcan, standing by the 
party whicli was a strong defense of the 
Union in her hour of peril. In his religious 
views he is a Methodist and he lives an earn- 
e.'^t. consistent Cliristian Hfe which makes his 
example well worthy of emulation and wins 
for him the respect, confidence and esteem of 
his fellow men. 



EDWIX W MOORE. 

Edwin \'. Moore is engaged in general 
Uicrchandising at Beaver Dams, conducting 
a successful business career, which classes 
him among the leading representatives of 
commercial interests here. He was born 
January 24. 1857. in Orange. New York, his 
jjarents being Martin and Catherine (Put- 
nam) Moore. His father was a native of 
Fulton county. Xew York, born on the 2 2d 
of November. 181 7. and was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Catherine Putnam, whose birth 
occurred on the 4th of Septen'ber. 1831. 
They removed from Johnstown. Fulton coun- 
ty, Xew York, to Schuyler county, becom- 
ing respected and honored citizens of this 
locality. In their family were eight children, 
of whom James, the eldest, died. Aaron, 
the second son, married Eunice Savery. 
John is also deceased. George wedded 
Xancy Shaver, by whom he has one child 
and their home is in Savona, Xew York. 
Melvina is the wife of Maloncthon Rolonson, 
a farmer residing in Millport. Edwin is the 
ne.xt of the family. Dorothy is the wife of 
William J. Tucker, a prominent and intluen- 
tial citizen of Schuyler county, who is now 
sening as sheriff. They have three chil- 
dren : Olo. Frank and Clinton. Martin is 



the youngest memljer of the Moore family. 

In the place of his nativity Edwin \'. 
Moore was reared and educated, continuing 
his studies in the common schools until 
twenty years of age. after which he turned 
his attention to farming. In early manhood 
he was uniteil in marriage to Miss Hattie 
Tucker, a daughter of Alonzo and Calista 
(Mathews) Tucker. Her paternal grand- 
father. John Tucker, was born in Xew Jer- 
sey, March 8, 1790. and was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Gracia Gilljert. whose liirth oc- 
curred in Xew York city, May 10. 1798. 
Among their children was Alonzo Tucker, 
v.ho was born March 2, 1829. After he had 
reached manhood he wedded Calista Math- 
ews, a daughter of William and Catherine 
(Williams) Mathews, the former born Sep- 
tember 17, 1 801. while the latter was born 
in Xew York city on the 21st of August. 
1803. Unto the parents of Mrs. Moore were 
Ijorn .si.x children: William J.. Addie. Hat- 
tie .\.. Frank B., Herman G., and Romie E. 
Addie. Herman C^i. ruid Romie E. are de- 
ceased. 

At the time of their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Moore began their domestic life in the 
town of Hornby. Steuben county, where they 
lived for six years. On the expiration of 
that period they removed to Beaver Dams, 
where Mr. Moore embarked in general 
merchandising, which he has since followed 
with excellent success. He carries a large 
and well selectetl stock of goods, compris- 
ing everything found in a first-class estab- 
lishment of this character. He has secured 
a liberal patronage through his enterprise 
and energy, combined with his honorable bus- 
iness methods, which will bear the closest in- 
vestigation and scrutiny. A popular mer- 
chant, his trade is constantly increasing and 
has alreailv brought him good success. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



455 



The home of Mr. ami Mrs. Moore lias 
been blessed with one son, Leon, who is still 
under the parental roof. The parents hold 
membership in the Methodist church and 
contribute generously to its support, while 
in his political affiliations Mr. Moore is a 
Republican, unfailing in his allegiance to the 
party, for he believes that its platform con- 
tains the best elements of good government. 
His success in business is the merited reward 
of his own labor. His reasonable prices, his 
strong desire to please his customers, com- 
bined with his unfailing courtesy and his 
sound business methods, have made him a 
prosperous merchant and one who well t'e 
serves to be mentioned among the leading 
representatives of commercial interests in 
Schuvler countv. 



JAMES CRIPPEX. 



James Crippen long resided in this por- 
tion of Xew York, a worthy, enterprising 
and highly respected citizen, his life being 
largely devoted to agricultural pursuits. He 
was born on the 31st of December, 1813, in 
Scipio, Tompkins county. New York. In 
the common schools he acquired his educa- 
tion, continuing his studies until he reached 
the age of twenty years. He was united 
ir. marriage to Catherine Snook, a resident 
of Watkins, althoiigh her people were from 
New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs Crippen began 
their domestic life in Watkins and unto them 
were born the following named : John, de- 
ccasefl : Mary Elizabeth ; Susan .\nn ; Sarah 
C. ; Nelson James, who has also passed away ; 
Emma A. : .\rvilla M. ; Elmer E. ; and Lu- 
cinda C. Of this number Susan Ann be- 
came the wife of Wilson P. Price and re- 



sides in Newton, New York, where Mr. 
Price is engaged in business as an architect 
and builder. They have two children. 
Sarah C. is at home with her parents. Ar- 
villa M. is the wife of Aaron H. Miles, a 
resident of Millport, New York. Elmer 
E. Crippen, a son of our subject, resides in 
Horseheads, Chemung county. He married 
Ina Walker and they have four children ; 
Mertie M., Clarence J., Claude R. and Nel- 
lie A. 

Throughout the \ears of his active busi- 
ness career James Crippen. the subject of this 
review, carried on farming and his life of 
industry and earnest toil brought to him a 
comfortable competence. He had a wide 
acquaintance in this section of the Empire 
state and was held in high esteem l>ecausc 
his life had ever been honorable and had 
been in accord with upright manly principles. 
He and his wife followed closely the teach- 
ings of the P)aptist church, in which they 
long held membership. In his political af- 
filiations he was a Democrat and as a citi- 
zen he was public spirited, his efforts being 
directed in those channels througli which 
flow the greatest good to the greatest num- 
ber. 



GEORGE J. DEWEY. 

A native of Steuben county. New ^'ork. 
George J. Dewey was born on the 5th of 
June, 1839, and is a son of Levi Ives Dewey, 
deceased. The father was born in Upper 
Lisle, Broonre county. New York, in the 
year 181 3, and when he had attained to 
man's estate he wedded Janet Johnson. 
Their children are Maria and Mary, both 
deceased ; George J. : Lucinda : and John, 
who has also passed away. Lucinda is the 



456 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



wife of Leroy Rouse, a resident of the town 
cf Triangle, Broome county, New York. 

Between the ages of six and twenty years 
George J. Dewey largely devoted his time 
and attention to the acquirement of an etUn 
cation, after which he engaged in farming 
for two years. He then joined the army 
as a defender of the Union cause in the Civil 
war, enlisting on the 22d of October, 1861, 
as a member of Company F, Eighty-ninth 
Regiment of New York Volunteers. Ho 
was under the command of Captain Robert 
Brown and served for three years, being 
honorably discharged in 1864, after which 
he returned to his home with a creditable 
military record, for he had been a loyal and 
faithful soldier, manifesting bravery and 
daring upon the field of battle. Returning to 
Broome county he located in the town of 
Triangle, where he began farming for his 
father, with whom he remained for two 
years. 

On the expiration of that period ]\Ir. 
Dewey was united in marriage to Miss Cor- 
nelia A. Everts, a daughter of the Rev. ]\I. 
j\l. Exerts, who married Lovina Reed, and 
tlieir children are Lucia Reed and Cornelia. 
The former is the widow of Simeon Brown, 
who was killed in the army during the Civil 
war, and she now lives in Delaware county. 
New York. Throughout their married life 
yiv. and Mrs. Dewey have resided at their 
present home in Alpine, Schuyler county. 
Their union has been blessed with two chil- 
dren : Jeannette M., now the wife of E. 
T Smith and a resident of Binghamton ; and 
Arthur E., who is preparing himself for an 
Osteopathic physician. i\Ir. Dewey devotes 
hip time and energies to agricultural pursuits, 
which he is conducting successfully, and his 
thorough understanding of the business, 
combined with his marked energy, has made 



his place a valuable one. In his political 
views he is a stalwart Republican, earnest 
in his advocacy of the party and its princi- 
ples. 



SAMUEL LE\I HAXLEY. 

Among the residents of the town of Hec- 
tor who spent their entire lixes in this lo- 
cality, thereby proving its attractiveness as a 
place of abode, was Samuel Levi Ilanley. 
His birth occurred here on the 15th of Feb- 
ruary, 1831. A son of Aaron and Caroline 
(Smith) Hanley, he represented one of tho 
old families of this portion of the state. His 
great-grandfather joined the American army 
at the time of the Revolutionary war and 
was killed in battle while vahantl)' fighting 
for the independence of the nation. He 
wedded Catherine Mead, ami they became 
the parents of twelve children. The grand- 
father, Captain Samuel Hanley. was born 
July 14, 1775, before the signing of the Dec- 
lai-ation of Independence. In the beginning 
of the nineteenth century he came to the 
town of Hector, settling on six hundred ancl 
forty acres of land which was entirely wild 
and unimproved. He had to cut a road 
through the woods to his place. He made 
the journey by ox team from New Jersey, 
driving all the way, because there were no 
railroads and the only means of transporta- 
tion was by stage or private conve\ance — 
and there was not even a stage line to this 
locality. His wife, Catherine, was born 
September 10, 1772, and they became the 
])arents of twelve children, as follows: 
Eben Meade, born December 10, 1795; Dc 
borah, born September 13, 1797; Mary, born 
September 23. 1799; Lavinda, born Sep- 
tember 18. 1801 ; .\aron and Levi, twins, 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



457 



born June lo, 1S03; Susan, born July 22, 
1805; Elizabeth, born November 11, 1807; 
Calista, born January 17, 1810; Olive, born 
June 2, 1812; Louisa, born May i, 18141 
and Helen, born November 8, 1816. 

Aaron Hanley, the father of our sub- 
ject, was reared in this county in the usual 
manner of farmer lads of the period. He 
a-sisled in the work of developing his fa- 
ther's property and thus received practical 
training in the work which he later carried 
on for himself. He was quite prominent in 
his community, was widely known and at 
one time he served as assessor of his town- 
ship. He married Caroline Smith, who was 
born October 22, 1805, and they became the 
parents of nine children, as follows : Emma 
Maria, born January 10, 1827 ; Richard 
Rush, born July 17, 1829; Samuel Levi, born 
J'ebruary 15, 1831 ; Mary Ann, born Sep 
tember 13. 1833; Catharine, born March 21, 
1 836 ; Henry Clay, born August 7, 1 838 ; 
James, born January 3, 1S41 ; Anne Mai">', 
born February 13. 1843; and Reuben Smith, 
born October 11, 1847. Of this number 
two have passed away, Mary Ann having 
died October 23, 1837, and Henry Clay, a 
soldier of the Civil war, who was killed in 
battle March 28. 1862. The father's death 
occurred November 4, 1869, and the mother, 
long surviving him, departed this life Oc- 
tober 22, 1884, on the seventy-ninth anni- 
versary of her birth. 

Samuel Levi Hanley was also a student 
in the early subscription schoors of this coun-- 
ty, and later, when the free school system 
was established, he continued his studies in 
that way and subsequently Iiecame a high 
school student, thus broadening his know!' 
edge, which well fitted him for the responsi- 
ble duties of business life. After leaving 
school he began farming, which he pursued 



throughout his entire life, and to some ex- 
tent he was engaged in the raising of fruit. 
He lived upon a part of the old homestead 
which became the property of his grandfa- 
ther about a century ago, and here he had 
two hundred acres of rich and very valuable 
land. 

On the 3d of March, 1870, Mr. Han- 
ley was united in marriage to Miss Julia A. 
Stillwell, a daughter of John L. and Eunice 
H. (Hart) Stillwell. They had no children 
of their own, but adopted his niece, Jessie, 
They attended the Presbyterian church, and 
in his political views Mr. Hanley was a 
stanch Republican. At one time he served 
as assessor. He was never a politician in 
the sense of office seeking, however, pre- 
ferring to devote his time and attention to 
his business affairs. After a useful and 
well spent life he passed away on the i6th 
of January, 1903, honored and respected Ijy 
all who knew him. He is greatly missed in 
the locality where he so long made. his home 
and where everyone was his friend. Mr. 
Hanley was an honest, upright citizen and 
a gentleman in every respect. 



HERBERT J. LEONARD. 

Herbert J. Leonard has for two years 
''een employed as section hand on the Le- 
high A'.'illcy Railroad at Cayuta. He is 
^^•elI known as a progressive and public- 
spirited citizen and one well worthy of the 
esteem of his fellow men. .\ native of Che- 
mung county. New York. Mr. Leonard was 
born in the town of Erin July 7, 1867. and 
is a son of John B. and Anna E. (Delo) 
Leonard, the former a native of Chemung 
county, and the latter of Whitehall. Wash- 
ington county. New ^'urk. In their family 



458 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



were but three children : George, Ellen and 
Herbert. The last named was reared under 
tlie parental roof, no event of special im- 
portance occurring to vary for him the rout- 
ine of life in his minority. Like most boys 
he enjoyed the pleasures of the playground 
and performed the tasks assigned to him in 
the schoolroom, where he continued his edu- 
cation until he started out upon his business 
career. Becoming connected with the rail- 
road service, he was given a position in the 
freight department at Cayuta. where he has 
since remained, discharging his duties with 
marked promptness and fidelity, with ac- 
curacy and dispatch. 

On the 30th of September, 1890. Mr. 
Leonard was united in marriage to Miss 
Alice Decker, who was born in the town of 
Breesport. Chemung county, on the 12th of 
May, 1870. Her father was William Decker, 
also a native of the town of Breesport, and 
her mother, who bore the maiden name of 
Maria Jane Yorkey. was born in Horseheads, 
Chemung county. They had the following 
children: Frank; Dora, the wife of Fred- 
erick Morgan ; Charlie, who makes his home 
in Wisconsin, having been a resident of that 
state for twenty years; Addie; Carrie, who 
has passed away; Alice, the wife of our sub- 
ject; and Hannah, the wife of Jame.s Xelson. 
of Michigan, by whom she has one child. 
The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard has 
been blessed with one daughter, Rachel Eliz- 
abeth, who was born July 14. 1891. and is 
now attending school in Cayuta. The par- 
ents are well known in this town and have 
gained many friends by reason of their getni- 
ine worth. Mr. Leonard is a Republican 
in his political affiliations and when matters 
of citizenship are concerned he is found as 
the champion of all measures for tlie gen- 
eral good. 



GEORGE HARIN'G. 

One of the oldest families of southern 
New York is that of which our subject is a 
representative. The family is of Holland 
Dutch descent and was established in New 
Jersey at a very early ejjoch in American his- 
tory. Later representatives of the name went 
to Cayuga county. New York, traveling by 
way of the Mohawk route. The other route 
led them past Binghamton. Owego and El- 
mira. while the Mohawk route took them up 
the Hudson and Mohawk valleys. The great- 
grandfather of our subject was a paymaster 
of the Rev.ilutionary war. Garret Haring. 
tlie grandfather of our subject, removed 
from Genoa, Cayuga county, with his parents 
to Starkey, Yates county, and there he was 
engaged in business as a surveyor and con- 
veyancer in the early days. He also served 
as side or assistant judge of Yates county. 
His property interests included a farm in 
that town, and he afterward purchased a large 
tract of land at Meads Creek, in Steuben 
county. New York, to which he removed, 
making his home there for a numl>er of years. 
Subsequently he went to }*Ionterey and later 
took up his abode at Sugar Hill, where he 
died at the age of seventy-seven years. His 
wife survived him for a time and passed 
away at the age of eighty-four years. They 
were the parents of thirteen children: Cor- 
nelius, William. Chauncey. Isaac C. How- 
.Trd. .Anna. Delx>rah. Clarissa. Harriet. 
Keziah and three who died in infancy. 

William Haring. the father of our sub- 
ject, was Iwrn in Genoa. Cayuga county, 
Xew York, October 29. 1808. and was about 
eight years of age when he accompanied his 
liarents on their removal to Yates county, 
finally settling in the town of Starkey. There 
on the hoini' f;irni he w.is reared to manhood 




GEORGE HARING 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



461 



and after arriving at years of maturity lie 
wedded Eliza Cox. They became tlie par- 
ents of two children. Charles and George. 
When a young man the father worked upon 
the farm during the summer months and in 
tlic winter seasons attended school. He 
afterward engaged in^ teaching school and 
later was em])loyed upon the construction of 
the Jefferson House as a stone cutter. The 
steps leading up to the building are a part of 
this work. Later he was employed by the 
firm of Arauld & Shannon, having charge of 
their interests at Millport and tlic .supervision 
of their mills and store. Later he was in 
charge of their store at Geneva, New York, 
remaining with them for two years. On the 
e.xpiration of that period he entered into busi- 
ness relations with L. G. Townsend at Big 
Stream, establishing a general mercantile 
store of which he was the superintendent. 
He afterward became a partner of .Alonzo 
Simmons, in a mercantile enterprise at Rock 
Stream and subsequently was one of the lead- 
ing business men of Irelandville, in the town 
of Reading, where he remained until 1843, 
when he came to Watkins and engaged in 
business on Madison street for one year. 
Then Mr. I laring openeil a store in the brick 
block on the corner of Franklin and Second 
streets, which property is now owned by 
George Haring. For a time his son Charles 
was in business willi him. and he was re- 
garded as the leading merchant in the place 
until life's labors were ended in death. The 
father pas.sed away November 21, 1875. and 
( n the 24th cf June. 1877, his wife also de- 
parted this life. 

Mrs. Haring-, the mother of our subject, 
w as a daughter of Jesse and Elizabeth Cox, 
both of whom were natives of W^estchester 
countv, Xew York. They resided near Mt. 
Pleasant, and on leaving the place of their 



nativity the\' removed to what is now Schuy- 
ler county. Mrs. Haring was born May 
12, 181 1, and was but a small girl when her 
parents located in the town of Reading, 
They were identified with the societx' of 
Friends or Quakers. The father devoted 
his attention to agricultural pursuits, and he 
had one son whom he assisted in establishing 
mercantile enterprises in New York a num- 
ber of times. Fn the community where they 
located both Mr. and Mrs. Co.x enjoyed the 
high reganl of many warm friends. 

It will thus be seen that George Haring 
is a representative of two prominent and 
leading pioneer families of Schuyler county. 
He was born October 21, 1841. When but 
eighteeen months old his parents removed to 
Watkins and in this village he ])ursued his 
education in the puljlic schools. On putting 
aside his text books he joined his father in 
merchandising, and the business was carried 
on continuously under the firm name of 
William Haring & Sons for many years. At 
length the father retired and our subject and 
his brother became the owners of the store, 
which they conducted for some tiiue there- 
after. Later they sold their mercantile in- 
terests. Mr. Haring of this review then 
turned his attention to real estate dealing, 
in which he has since been engaged. He 
was a wide awake, progessive merchant, con- 
stantly studying the needs and wishe:^ of the 
public and thereby pleasing his patrons by 
his purchases and the goods which he placed 
upon the market. In his real estate dealings 
he is equally enterprising, wide-awake and 
energetic, and is thoroughly well informed 
concerning realty values in this part of the 
state. He has negf)tiated a number of im- 
portant real estate transfers and at the pres- 
ent tinxe has much valuable ])roperty. of 
which he is acting as agent. 



462 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



On the 1st of March, 1865, Mr. Haring 
was united in marriage to Sarah A. Canfield, 
a daughter of Jonas and Margaret (Will- 
iams) Canfield. She, too, is a native of 
Schuyler county and by her marriage has be- 
come the mother of three daughters, Mar- 
garet Eliza, now the wife of ^lott Brown 
Hughe)-, a shoe merchant of Watkins; and 
Georgiana and Jessie, who are at home. 
Mr. Haring and his family attend the ser- 
vices of the Presbyterian church, and in his 
political views he is a Democrat. «\t the 
present time he is serving as one of the water 
commissioners of W^atkins but has never 
been an aspirant for public life. His 
entire life has been passed in this county, 
and all who know him — and his acquaint- 
ance is extensive — regard him as a man of 
genuine worth, trustworthy in business and 
reliable in a life's relations. He stands 
to-day in his mature years — a strong man 
— strong in the consciousness of well-spent 
years, strong to plan and perform, strong 
in his credit and good name, and a worthy 
example for young men to pattern after, as 
showing what intelligence and probity may 
accomplish in the way of success in life. 



HENRY S. HOWARD. 

The ancestral history of Henry S. How- 
ard is one of close connection with the devel- 
opment of Schuyler county, for in the early 
part of the nineteenth century the grandfa- 
ther of our subject settled upon land which 
is now included within the borders of his 
farm. His paternal great-grandfather, Jos- 
eph Howard, was a soldier of the Revolu- 
tionary war and valiantly aided in the cause 
of American independence with a company 



of Massachusetts soldiers, although he was 
a resident of New Hampshire. Leaving 
New England after the establishment of the 
Republic, he took up his abode in Steuben 
county. New York, and passed away in the 
town of Howard. Joseph Howard, the 
grandfather of our subject, was the first of 
the name to locate in what is now Schuyler 
county, and settled upon a part of the land 
\vhicli is now owned by Henry S. Howard 
of this review. The father of our subject 
also bore the name of Henry S. Howard, and 
was born in Reading township, where he was 
reared to manhood on the old home place. 
In Albany he was united in marriage to Ann 
M. Crosby, who was born and reared in 
New York city, and subsequently the young 
couple removed to Seneca county, while for 
a period they also lived in Yates county. Mr. 
Howard was a Whig'in his political affilia- 
tions until the dissolution of the party, when 
he joined the ranks of the Republican party. 
Both he and his wife held membership in the 
Methodist Episcopal church and were peo- 
ple of the highest respectability. 

Heniy S. Howard, whose name intro- 
ihices this record, was born at Waterloo, 
Seneca county. New York, November 20, 
1S54, and was only two years old when 
l)rought by his parents to Schuyler county, 
the family locating on the farm which is yet 
his home, the fatiier purchasing one hundred 
acres of land which he pl.'iced under the jilow 
and improved by the erection of good build- 
ings. His death occurred in the year 1892, 
when he was seventy-eight years of age, 
while the mother of our subject passed away 
in 1 886. There were six children in the 
family, but the first born died in infancy and 
Charles died at the age of twenty-six years. 
George O. is living in Aurora, Illinois, 
where he is connected with a silver plating 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



463 



factory. He first married Carrie Scofield, 
by wlioin lie had one son, Charles, and for 
his second wife he chose Alice Brown. 
John, the next member of the Howard fam- 
ily, died at the age of thirty-five years, while 
Chester died at the age of fourteen years. 

Henry S. Howard, the fifth in order of 
birth, spent his boyhood days on the old 
homestead, and after leaving the country' 
schools he became a student in the W'atkins 
high school and later in Cook Academy. 
When eighteen years of age he began teach- 
ing, following that profession for about ten 
years in the common schools of Schuyler 
county, his work as a teacher giving gen- 
eral satisfaction because of his ability to 
maintain discipline and to impart readily 
and concisely to otlicr^ tlie knowledge which 
he had acquired. 

On the 25th of October, 1S76, Mr. 
Howard was married in Watkins to Miss 
Delia M. Sacket, of this place, who was 
born in the town of Montour. They had 
four children: Harry O., who is at home; 
William V., who died at the age of four 
years ; Grace, who was graduated in the high 
school of Watkins with the class of 1900 and 
is now a teacher in the town of Hector; and 
Bula, who is at home. 

Mr. Howard cast his first presidential 
ballot for Rutl-'prfnrd B. Hayes in 1876 and 
was identified with the Republican party un- 
til 1896, when he supported W. J. Bryan 
for the presidency. Since that time he has 
been independent in his political views and 
connections. In 1884 he was elected on 
the Republican ticket to the office of school 
commissioner, in which he servetl for two 
terms, and his (^ff\n■,\\ prerogative was ever 
used for the uplifting of the standard of 
education and for the substantial upbuilding 
of the school system of Schuyler county. A 



member uf liie Methodist Episcopal church 
of Reading Center, he takes an active and 
helpful interest in its work, is serving as one 
of its trustees, and for many years he was 
superintendent of the Sunday-school. 



JOHN NELSON PRICE. 

John Nelson Price is one of the venera- 
ble and honored citizens of Schuyler county. 
His life has been quietly passed, yet his ex- 
ample is well worthy of emulation, for he 
has been found loyal to CNcr)' trust reposed in 
him and in business afifairs has ever been 
reliable and honorable. He is a native of 
the town of Reading, Steuben county, now 
Schuyler county, where his ijirth occurred on 
the 27tb of February, 181 5. To the com- 
mon school system of his home locality he- 
is indebted for the educational privileges 
which he enjoyed and which fitted him for 
his life work, lie left school at the age of 
sixteen and began learning the tanner's and 
currier's trades, thoroughly mastering the 
business so that he became Jtn excellent work- 
man. For twenty years he followed that 
pursuit, meeting with good success in his 
undertaking. .\t length he invested the 
capital which he had acquired through his 
own earnings in a tract of land, becoming 
the owner of forty-seven and one-half acres, 
and since that time he has been identified with 
farming interests in Schuyler county. Hi-^ 
home is in Dix township, where he has lived 
for seventy years. He has here a well im- 
proved and splendidly de\eloped tract of 
land and everything about his place is neat 
and thrifty in appearance. 

On tlie 5th of .\pril, i86_>, Mr. Price 
was united in marriage to ?*Iiss Nancy .-\nn 



464 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Huston, and they became residents of the 
town of Dix, where unto them were born 
four children : ^fary Ameha, who is now 
deceased; Charles M.; Edgar J.; and Fred- 
erick O. The oldest Ip.ing son resides in 
the town of Watkins. He married Addie 
Cleveland and they Ijecanie the parents of 
four children : Britton and Frederick Ow- 
ens, both, of whom are residents of W'atkins : 
Catherine, tlie wife of Otis Austin, who is 
engaged in farming near Corning; and 
Mary, who became the wife of Nathan B. 
Cleveland and lived in Moreland, but both 
are now deceased. Frederick Owens, who 
married Emma Phillips, resides near Wat- 
kins. They have two children, Lewis and 
Pearl. Mrs. Price, tlie wife of our subject, 
died February 6, 1897. She was a daugh' 
ter of James M. Huston and her mother, in 
her maidenhood, bore the name of Mary 
Straighter. Their other children were 
Sarali, William and .\lexander, all deceased. 
John Xelson Price votes with the Re- 
publican party, of which he has long been 
an earnest supporter. In early life he was 
connected with the Unitarian church and 
engaged in preaching for that denomination 
for many years. In appreciation of his 
able addresses at the church conferences his 
name was taken by a wealthy gentleman 
who. much to the surprise of Mr. Price, sent 
him a cjuantity of books, valued at about one 
hundred and fifty dollars, in care of Mr. 
Cook, of Montour Falls. This shows the 
high esteem in which he was held. Later, 
while assisting a young Baptist mini.stcr in 
the cause of that denomination and becoming 
familiar with the precepts of that church, 
he was soon greatly interested in its work 
and joined its ministrA^ l-'or forty-two 
years he has engaged in preaching the gos- 
pel and fur ten years was snperi.itcndent uf 



the Baptist conference, being one of its ablest 
representatives, so considered by all. If any 
trouble arose in a church he never failed to 
settle it, and during his ministry he has bap- 
tized over seven hundred people by immer- 
sion, but at present he has no regular pas- 
torate and is now practically living retired, 
though he still preaches many funeral ser- 
mons and occasionally fills vacancies in the 
pulpit. In the cause of the Master he has 
(lone efficient ser\ice, laboring earnestly and 
helpfully for the welfare of his fellow men 
and the extension of the influence of the 
church. 



CARROL MESSIG. 

Carrol Messig. now deceased, was for 
many years a respected and honored citizen 
of Schuyler county. He was Ixirn in CJer- 
niany in the year 1814 and there spent the 
period of his boyhood and youth. Having 
heard favorable reports concerning the op- 
portunities afforded in the new world to 
young men of energ}-, aniljition and determin- 
ation, he resolved to establish a home in this 
country, and in 1848 he came to Atnerica, set- 
tling in the town of Jefferson, now called 
Watkins, New York. There he lived for three 
years, and on the expiration of that period he 
removed to Havana, tlie name of which place 
has since been changed to Montour Falls. 
Tlie academy was just being built at that 
time. In 185 1 Mr. Messig began garden- 
ing, a business which he followed success- 
fully up to the time of his death, in 189J. .V 
glance at his place indicated to the passer-by 
bis neatness and thrift in carrying on his 
work :uid his thorough imderstanding of the 
needs of various kinds of vegetables. Those 
which he raised were of a superior grade and 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



405 



quality ami loiiiul a \e;y ready sale on the 
market, bri lining to him an excellent financial 
return. 

Mr. Mcssig was united in marriage in 
Germany to Miss Margaret Bomwich, who 
was born in the city of Rittenburg, in the 
fatherland, in the year 1824. There her 
girlhood days were passed and after arriv- 
ing at womanhood she gave her hand in 
marriage to Mr. Messig. In 1852 she came 
to .America, her husband having taken up 
his abode here four years before. They first 
lived in Jefferson and came to what is now 
known as ^^lontour Falls. Mr. Messig pro- 
vided a comfortable home for his family 
from his earnings, .saving a sufficient amount 
to secure a nice residence, in which his 
widow is now living. This worthy couple 
were the parents of the following children: 
Charles; Frank; William; Frederick; Lew- 
is ; Lucy, deceased ; Julia, deceased ; and 
Sarah, deceased. Of this number Charles, 
a gardener of Montour Falls, wedded Sophie 
Bomwich and their children were Walter 
and George. Frank wedtled Mary Kendall 
and is living in Montour Falls. He is a 
printer by trade and is in the employ of 
Charles Ball, for whom he has worked for 
twenty-nine years, being one of the most 
faithful and trusted representatives of that 
establishment. William is a gardener located 
ii: Montour Falls. Frederick is a tinner by 
trade and works in a hardware store in the 
same place. Lewis is also a tinner and is in 
the employ of the hardware firm of L. H. 
Durland & Company. i>t W'atkins, New 
York. The daughters have all passed away. 

The Messig family is an old and re- 
spected one of Montour Falls. Mr. Messig 
continued business here until his death, 
which occurred in 1892. Many friends 
mourned his loss, for his upright life had en- 



deared him til many with whom he came in 
contact. All who knew him respected him. 
He never had occasion to regret his deter- 
mination to seek a home beyond the At- 
lantic, for here he found the business oppor- 
tunities he sought and through his untiring 
labor and careful management he advanced 
from an humble financial pnsilion to one of 
aftluence. 



GEORGE LEE. 



George Lee spent his entire life in Schuy- 
ler county and when called to his final rest 
left behind him a record well worthy of per- 
petuation in the county's history, for he was 
a man of genuine worth, faithful to the ties 
of home and friendship, reliable in business 
and progressive in citizenship. He was born 
in the town of Be;iver Dams on the 17th of 
April, 1826, a son of Edward and Libbie 
(Sibbie) Lee, in whose fnmily were three 
children. 

In the common schools near his boy- 
hood's home the subject of this review pur- 
sued his education until sixteen years of age, 
when he put aside his text books to become 
an active factor in the business life of the 
community. He had been reared to the 
occupation of farming, early becoming fa- 
miliar with, the duties of field and meadow. 
and when he entered upon his business ca- 
reer it was as a representative of the work 
with which he had been connected from I)oy- 
hood. He always followed farming and won 
for himself a place among the substantial 
agriculturists of his community. He had 
one hundred acres of land, and upon this he 
made good improvements. His buildings 
were substantial and kept in a state of good 
repair and a glance at his fields indicated to 



466 



THE -BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



the passer-by tliat the owner was a man of 
industry, enterprise and practical ideas. 

On the 14th of February, 1856, Mr. Lee 
was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
Rogers, a daugliter of Peter and EHza 
(Perkins) Rogers, who were tlie parents of 
the following named : Emeline, Daniel, 
Chauncey, Mary, Richard Oliver, George, 
. Ciiarles, Fabbie, Phebe, Charlotte and Peter. 
The last two are deceased. Chauncey mar- 
ried Alberta Harrison, and their children are 
Ida. Melvin and Libbie. Richard married 
Delphene Barker. He owns a nice farm 
and raises a great deal of stock. 

The hiome of Mr. and ]Mrs. Lee was 
blessed with one child, George H., who mar- 
ried Cora Gibson. In his politcal views our 
subject was a Democrat. His life was quiet- 
ly passed, yet he was a useful and honorablo 
citizen and his death, which occurred Sep- 
tember 4, 1893, was mourned by his many 
friends in Schuvler countv. 



LEONARD CRAWFORD. 

After many years' connection with agri- 
cultural interests, Leonard Crawford is now 
living retired in the town of Tyrone, enjoy- 
ing a well merited rest from labor. He 
was born in Putnam county. New York, 
September 18, 1S29, and \s a son of Stephen 
and Mary (Lockwood) Crawford, who on 
leaving Putnam county remo\ed to Steuben 
county when their son Leonard was but 
three years of age. There the father pur- 
chased land and carried on agricultural pur- 
suits until after our subject liad attained to 
man's estate. During his boyhood days 
Leonard Crawford became familiar with the 
work of field and meadow and assisted in 



the development of the old homestead, and 
for live years after attaining his majority he 
worked there with his father, receiving five 
hundred dollars in compensation for his ser- 
\ices. He then entered upon an independent 
business career, being employed as a farm 
hand for three or four years, after which, 
with the money he hail acquired through his 
own labor, he purcliased a small farm of 
sixty acres in Steuben county. 

When about twenty-eight years of age 
Leonard Crawford was united in marriage 
to Miss Aidrude De Graw, but she did not 
long survive, and for his second wife he 
chose Mrs. Mandama Sanford, nee Bailey, 
their marriage being celebrated on the 22d of 
Octoljer, 1864. Three sons were bom of 
this union: John B., who is represented 
on another page of this work ; David S. ; and 
\\'ard E. The last named was bom on the 
home farm at Weston, in the town of Ty- 
rone, January 31. 1881. Mrs. Crawford 
is a daughter of John and Elsie (Depew) 
Bailey, her mother being a distant relative of 
Chauncey Depew. Mrs. Crawford first mar- 
ried David Sanford, but had no children by 
that union. He lived but a short time and 
subsequently she gave her hand in marriage 
to her present husband. 

It was on the ist of April, 1874. that Mr. 
Crawford removed to his present home, 
where he purchased a tract of one hundred 
and six acres of rich land, and subsequently 
he addefl to this another forty acres, so that 
his farm became quite extensive, but he gave 
to his eldest son forty-six acres of land upon 
which was a house and barn, worth alto- 
gether about twenty-five hundred dollars. 
To his second son he gave twenty-five hun- 
dred dollars in cash, while the third son is 
yet at home. 

Mr. Crawford is one who deserves great 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



467 



credit for what he has accomplished, and in 
many respects his hfe record is worthy of 
emulation. Me has been energetic and pros- 
perous, has been a hard worker, and as the 
result of his untiring eft\)rts he is to-day 
the possessor of a comfortable competence 
which now enables him to live retired. He 
cast his lir.'^t presidential vote for Winfield 
Scott in 1S52, and was an advocate of the 
W'iiig parly nnlil the organization of the 
new Republican party, when he joined its 
ranks antl has since followed its banners. He 
has been a member of the Methodist Episco- 
pal cliurch through long years, and his wife 
and sons are also identified with the same 
denomination. .Vn earnest Christian man, 
true to the teachings of his church and ex- 
emplifying in his life his religious faith, he 
has commanded the respect of all and is well 
worthy of mention in this volume. 



JOHN B. CRAWFORD. 

John U. Crawford, who is engaged in 
farming in the town of Tyrone, was born 
in the town of Wayne, Steuben county, New- 
York, April 4, 1866, and is a son of Leon- 
ard and Mandana (Bailey) Crawford. In 
addition to a common school education he 
had the privilege of attending the Union 
Bath school for about six terms, and he had 
attained the age of nineteen years when he 
put aside his text books. He afterward 
gave his services to his father until he was 
twenty-one years of age, and at that time 
made arrangements to work for his father by 
tlie month, being thus employed on the old 
homestead until his marriage, which oc- 
curred in Dundee on the 22d of February. 
1893. the lady of his choice being Miss Celia 



^klatthews, who made her home with an uncle 
in the town of Orange, Schuyler county. 
Siie was born in that town, a daughter of 
Nicholas and Mary (Cronkrite) Matthews. 
Her father dieil when she was about nine 
years of age, and by her mother's death she 
was left an orphan at the age of eleven, so 
that she went to live with her uncle Lyman 
Cronkrite. Her parents were probably na- 
tives of Schuyler county, and her father was 
a soldier of the Union army, serving with 
Company A, One Hundred and Forty-first 
New York Regiment of Infantry. Mrs. 
Crawford had accjuired a good education, 
attending school in Duntlee, while for a time 
slie pursued her stuilies in Slarkey Seminary. 
To her husband she has been a faithful com- 
panion and helpmate, and both have many 
farm friends in the community where they 
are living. Their entire married life has 
been spent upon their present farm, which 
is pleasantly located in the town of Tyrone, 
and comprises fifty-six acres of rich and 
productive land. Upon this farm Mr. Craw- 
ford has erected a good plank barn twenty- 
eight by thirty feet, with an ell shed seven- 
teen by twcnty-fdur feet, this having been 
built in 1896. 

The home of our subject and his wife 
has been blessed with one daughter. Aline, 
born January 10, 1895. ^"'' subject is a 
Republican in his political views and cast 
his first presidential ballot for Benjamin 
Harrison in 1888. His fellow townsmen, 
recognizing his worth and ability, have sev 
era! times called him to public office, and for 
one year he served as collector for tiie town 
of Tyrone and for four years was road com- 
missioner, while on several occasions he has 
served as a delegate to the conventions of his 
party. Fraternally he is connected with 
the Knights of the Maccabees at Weston, 



468 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



and b(illi iie and liis wife are faithful and 
zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, in whicii he is ser\ing as a trustee 
and steward. They live in harmony with 
their professions, and their genuine worth 
and many excellencies of character have 
gained for them the warm esteem of all with 
^\hom thev have been associated. 



I-RAXKLIN LEE. 



This gentleman was born on the i8th of 
August. 1847, and is a son of Daniel E. 
and Almire (Travis) Lee. His father was 
a native of Jacksonville, Tompkins county, 
Xew York, and after arriving at years of 
manhood he wedded Miss Travis, by whom 
he had seven children, but the first born, 
George, is now deceased. Amos, the sec- 
ond of the family, married Jennie Currans< 
and they now reside in southern Indiana. 
They have two children, Harry and Rose. 
The third member of the family is Eranklin, 
of this review. William, the fourth in or- 
der of birth, wedded Minerva I'arr. and is 
engaged in farming, his home being in the 
town of Caton, Schuyler county. Lucy, the 
eldest daughter, is the wife of Williani 
Wourlind, whose home is in Liberty, Tioga 
county, Pennsylvania, where he carries on 
agricultural pursuits. Clementine married 
Oliver W'atts, who died some vears ago, and 
she subsequently wedded Lewis White, and 
their home is in Elmira, New York. Esther, 
the youngest member of the Lee family, is 
now the wife of George Dickcrson, who is 
engaged in bicycle repairing in Elmira. 

Franklin Lee of this review is a self-made 
man who from an early day has been de- 
pendent upon his own resources for what- 



ever he has accomplislicd. He left school 
at the age of twelve t(j begin farming in the 
employ of others and was thus engaged un- 
til the 25th of January, 1862, when he could 
no longer content himself to follow the plow, 
for his country had become involved in Civil 
war and he felt that his first dut\- was to- 
ward the Union. Accordingly, on the date 
mentioned, he enlisted as a member of Com- 
pany 1, Twenty-first New York Cavalry, un- 
der the command of Colonel Tibbits, and 
fought in a number of impcjrtant engage- 
ments, including the battles of Cedar Creek, 
Eucklertown, Lynchburg and many others. 
He was mustered out on the 7th of July, 
1865, an honored veteran, who was always 
found as a loyal defender of the Union cause 
whicli he had enlisted to preserve. 

At the close of the war Mr. Lee returned 
to his home and resumed farming. He was 
married on the 8th of September, 1872. to 
Miss Phebe Decker, a daughter of Solomon 
Decker. After her death he married Lydia 
Arnold. Her father, David Arnold, was 
born in Groton, Tompkins county. New 
York, August 3, 18 14, and his wife bore the 
maiden name of Phebe Baxter. Mrs. Lee 
was their only child. 

Our subject and his wife resided in El- 
mira, New York, for four years after their 
marriage and then removed to southern Indi- 
ana but subsequently they returned to El- 
mira, where they remained through the five 
succeeding years. On the expiration of that 
period they became residents of Ithaca. New 
York, where they lived for five years. There 
Mr. Lee worked on a farm. He afterward 
removed to West Danby. which continued 
to be his place of abode for two years, and 
later he look up his abode at Su^livanvilic. 
Chemung county, where he continue<l for one 
vcar. He next came to Catharine, where 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



469 



lie lias since lived, and to-day he is rejjarded 
as one of the leading and intluential residents 
of his community. Here he carries on farm- 
ing and is a tyi>ical agriculturist. W'ide- 
awake, alert, energetic and determined — 
these qualities have insured him success and 
his property is now productive and valuable. 
Mr. Lee votes with the Republican party, 
keeping well informed on the issues of the 
day, and his religious faith is indicated by 
his membership in the Methodist Episcopal 
church. He is a liberal contributor to the 
support of the church, active :n its work and 
zealously interested in its welfare. 



PETER RORICK. 



Peter Rorick, whose farming interests 
are bringing to him a good income and who 
is accounted one of the leading agriculturists 
of his community, was born in Tompkins 
county, Xew York, on the 9th of July, 1840, 
His father, John Rorick, was a native of 
Pennsylvania, born in Susquehanna county, 
while the mother of our subject, who boro 
the maiden name of Elizabeth, Wood, was 
.1 native of Schoharie county, Xew York. 
They became the parents of a large family 
of children, namely : John. Sanford, Marion 
and Lyman, all deceased; Phebe jane, Peter, 
Cornelius, Joseph, Abram, Henry, Martlip 
and Matilda. 

In the common schools of his native 
county Peter Rorick acquired his education 
and then started out in life on his own ac- 
count. He has always fr)lIowed farming, 
using this as a means of providing for his 
family. On the 4th of July. 1861, he was 
united in marriage to Miss Matilda Russell, 
whose birth occurred in Xewfield. Tomp- 

27 



kins county, Xew York, on the 4th of July, 
1842. She is a daughter of Richard and 
Jane (ChafTee) Russell, the former a na- 
tive of Canajoharie, Xew York, and the lat- 
ter of Xewfield. Tomi)kins county, Xew 
\'ork. I'jglu children were born unt(j them, 
namely : Matilda. Amanila, Jerome, Clar- 
issa, Charlie, Percival, Andrew and Hattie. 

At tlie time of his marriage Mr. Rorick 
took his bride to Cayuta, where they have 
^ince lived. On the ist of August, 1862, he 
bade adieu to his wife and entered the ser- 
vices of his country, enlisting for three 
years. After four months, however, he was 
granted a furlough, and while at home was 
taken ill and never recovered sufficiently to 
rejoin his regiment. As soon as he had re- 
covered his heailh to some extent he re- 
sumed his farm work, which he has con- 
tinuously followed with the result that he 
has become one of the prosperous agricul- 
turists of his coninuinity. Cpon his farm 
are found manv modern equipments, indi- 
cating his careful supervision and his pro- 
gressive spirit, and throughout his business 
career he has been characterized by diligence 
and perseverance, and upon this foundation 
he has builded the superstructure of his suc- 
cess. 

The home of Mr. and ilrs. Rorick has 
been blessed with seven children : Leslie, 
Edward, who married Susan Langley, by 
whom he has two children; Anna, the wife 
of Abram Van Giles, a resident of Cayuta, 
by whom she has three children: Eliza, de- 
ceased; Luella, the wife of Daniel Georgia, 
who also makes his home in Cayuta and by 
whom she has three children; John, who has 
likewise departed this life; and Minnie, who 
is at home with her parents. The family 
household is noted for its hospitality and 
Mr. Rorick and his most estimable wife en- 



47° 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



joy the high regard of a very large circle of 
friends. In politics he is a Democrat, and 
his upright life is indicative of his faith in 
the Methodist Episcopal church, of which 
he has long i)een a consistent and exemplar}- 
mem])er. He is deeply interested in the 
growth of the church and the extension of 
its influence and his life has ever been in 
consistent harmony with its principles. 



OSCAR R. HARIXG. 

Oscar R. Haring, who is engaged in gen- 
eral farming- and fruit raising in the town of 
Reading, Schuyler county, was born in this 
town .\ugust 30, 1842, and is a son of Isaac 
and Charlotte (Nichols) Haring. The fa- 
ther was probably a native of Cayuga coun- 
ty. New York, while his mother's birth oc- 
curred in what is now Schuyler county but 
was then a part of Steuben count}, the place 
of her nativity being in the town of Reading. 
They were married in that town and for a 
few- years resided in Irelandville, where the 
father engaged in merchandising, carrying 
on that business until 1843, when he re- 
moved to Watkins and again became identi- 
fied with mercantile pursuits, conducting his 
business at that place until his death, which 
occurred in the year 1844. His widow af- 
terward removed to a farm in the town of 
Dix. owning a tract of land ui)on which she 
resided until 1865, when she sold that prop- 
erty and" took up her abode on the farm 
which is now the home of our subject, and 
where she, too, is still living, at the age of 
eighty-three years. In the family were two 
children : John I., \vho is a molder by trade 
and resides in Binghamton; and Oscar R., of 
this review. After the death of her husband 



Mrs. Haring became the wife of David Cod- 
dington, but there were no children born of 
that union, 

0.scar R. Haring remained with his 
mother until he reached the age of seven- 
teen, when he started out upon an indepen- 
dent business career. Coming to the town 
of Reading, he worked by the month for his 
uncle, Charles W. Mathews, with whom he 
remained for about five years, and in 1865 he 
established his home upon the farm which is 
yet his place of abode. Here he has sixty 
acres of land which is rich and productive, 
and his attention is devoted to the cultiva- 
tion of the cereals best adapted to the soil 
and climate and also to the production of 
fruit. He raises many kinds of fine fruit 
antl in Iiis farming methods he is thoroughly 
progressive, systematic and wide-awake. 

On the nth of Septeniber, 1866, Mr. 
Haring was united in marriage to Miss Kate 
E. VanDeventer, who was burn in the town 
of Dix on the ist of April, 1843, ''^"'^ '-^ «^ 
daughter of Stq)hen \V. and Eliza { McEl- 
weej VanDeventer. Mrs. Haring was 
reared to womanhotxl in Schuyler county 
and acquired a good education and for a few 
years prior to her marriage successfully en- 
gaged in teaching. The young couple began 
their domestic life upon the farm which has 
always been their home, and their union has 
lieen blessed with five children : Leon, who 
was born July i", 1867, and is now engaged 
in bookkeeping in Buffalo, New York, mar- 
ried Emille Gilbert, of the town of Reacb 
ing, and they have one son, Douglas G., who 
was born August 6, 1894. Charles V., born 
July 8, 1869, is now acting as superinten- 
dent for the Eastman Kodak Company, of 
Rochester. New York. Eliza M., bom 
August 26, 1871. is a graduate of Watkins 
high school, and is now the wife of Will- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



471 



iani X. Hillerniaii. Jennie Mac, burn May 
10. 1880. is a graduate of the high school 
and training class and is now engaged in 
teaching in the high school at Watkins 
Grace, born May 9, 1885. will graduate 
from the high school of Watkins with the 
class of 1903. 

Mr. Haring has followed in the i)olitical 
footsteps of his father, supporting the Dem- 
ocratic party continuously and unfalteringly 
since he cast his first presidential vote for 
General McClellan in 1864. He has held 
the office of inspector, assessor, notary pub- 
lic and constable, serving as assessor and 
notar}- public for twelve years, and at one 
time he was a meml>er of \\'atkins Lodge, 
No. 332. F. & A. M.. but is not now con- 
nected with the fraternity. His time and at- 
tention is largely occupied by his business 
affairs and he is well known as a farmer and 
fruit grower, thoroughly conversant with all 
departments of the business and carrying on 
his work in a luanner to bring to him a good 
financial return. 



HENRY C. SAYLER. 

From the pioneer epoch in the history of 
Schuyler county down to the ])resent time 
representatives of the Sayler family have 
lived in this portion of the state and as 
worthy and progressive citizens they have 
l>een known to their fellow men. for all times 
they ha\e been active in support of every- 
thing pertaining to the general good. The 
grandparents of our subject lived in the town 
of Hector and there, in the year 1818, was 
born Andrew M. Savior, the father of oun 
si.bject. He was reared in the usual manner 
of farm lads of that period .nnd bore his part 
ill the development and cultivation of the 



home place. After arriving at years of ma- 
turity he wedded Jane Coddington and unto 
them were born the following named : 
Henry, William. Martin, Julia, Lewis, 
Sarah. Charles and Ella. 

Of this family Henry C. Sayler was 
born December 28, 1843, in the town of Cat- 
lin. where his parents were them living, hia 
father engaged in agricultural pursuits.- Un- 
der the parental roof he was reared and in 
the common school he mastered the branches 
of learning usually taught in such institu- 
tions, continuing his studies until he had 
reached the age of seventeen years. In that 
year the country became involved in civil 
war and men from all stations of life flocked 
to the standard of the L'nion. They came 
fiom the workshops,^ from the field, the 
ofliccs and the ])ulpits. and the sclio<il rooms 
furnished their full quota, for many were 
the school boys who donned the blue uni- 
form and went to the front. Mr. Sayler 
was among the latter number, enlisting on 
the 15th of October. 1861, as a member of 
Company K, Third New York Infantry. 
He served until the expiration of the term of 
enlistment on the 1st of June, 1863, and 
then returned home, having a good military 
record, although but nineteen years of age. 

l'"or a year thereafter Mr. Sayler was 
aerain in school, lie then married l^lizabeth 
Owens, and unto them was born a son, El- 
bert H. In April, 1871, the wife and mother 
died, amid the deep regret of all who knew 
her. In 1872 Mr. Sayler was again married, 
his second union being with Kate E. Quick, 
a daughter of Peter Quick, who was born in 
Easton. Pennsylvania, in the year 1802, and 
married Melinda Morse, who was descended 
from ancestors who were born in this coun- 
try. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Quick 
are .-\lonzo, Albert, Harriet and Kate. 



472 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



From tlie time of his first marriage down 
to the present Mr. Sayler lias been engaged 
in agricultural pursuits with the result tliat 
he is to-day the owner of a fine tract of land 
and in the wake of the shining plow comes 
the golden harvests which annually bring 
to him a good income from his labor. He 
attends the Presbyterian church and takes 
a deej) interest in its work and upbuilding. 
He exercises his right of franchise in sup- 
port of the men and measures of the Repub- 
lican party and in matters of citizenship is 
as true and loyal to-day as when he followed 
the starry banner of the nation upon south- 
ern battlefields. 



NICOLL F. JONES. 



Nicoll F. Jones is well deserving of reji- 
resentation in this volume for he is a man 
of genuine worth, respected liy all who know 
him, because he possesses qualities that al- 
ways form a part of honorable manhood and 
loyal citizenship. He was bom in New Lon- 
don, Connecticut, July 31, 1836. His fa- 
ther. George Jones, was born in the county 
o: Kent. England, on the 14th of February, 
1777, and there remained throughout the 
period of his boyhood and youth. Having 
heard favorable reports of the opportunities 
furnished young men in America he de- 
termined to try his fortune in the L^nited 
States and in 181 6 he sailed for the new 
world, settling first in Boston. Massachus- 
etts, where he lived for sixteen years. Ho 
then moved to New London, Connecticut, 
and was united in marriage to Frances E. 
Fardeck. In the year 1837 they became 
residents of Newfield, New York, where the 
father followed farming as a means of pro- 



viding a livelihood for his family. Their 
union was blessed with four children : John 
E., Abbie Maria, William L. and Nicoll 
!•. The eldest married Olive Jarvis, and 
they reside in Williamsport, where John E. 
Jones is conducting a supply store. They 
have one daughter, Evalyn. Abbie, the only 
sister of our subject, is the wife of William 
(ianung, a resident of Williamsport, and they 
have two children, Williamine and Cora, the 
wife of Howard Galbrath, of W'illiamsport. 

In his youth Nicoll F. Jones acquired a 
good common school education and he is to- 
day a well informed man. having continu- 
ously kept abreast with the times by read- 
ing, study and investigation. For eight 
years in his early manhood he engaged in 
teaching school with creditable success and 
then joined the army, enlisting on the 26th 
o: August, 1864. He served for ten months 
and was then honorably discharged on the 
26th of June, 1865. 

After being mustered out Mr. Jones re- 
turned to his home in Catharine, New York 
and again engaged in teaching school. In 
1866 he chose as a companion and helpmate 
for life's journey Miss Deborah A. Merwin, 
their marriage being celebrated on the 4th 
of April of that year. She is a daughter of 
Eber and Julia A. (Todd) Merwin, the 
former born in the year 1812 and the latter 
in 1 81 4. Both are now ileceased. They 
made their home in Ulster county. Newt 
York. They had eight children: Smith; 
Mary; Samuel B. ; Thirza. deceased; De- 
borah A.; Lucy; Olive; and Lydia. Unto 
Mr. and Mrs. Jones have l)een born five 
children : Samuel F., the eldest, now a resi- 
dent of Odessa, married Hattie M. Couch 
and they have two children, Mary Evalyn 
and .\vonia L. Their father, Samuel Jones 
ii a proprietor of a hardware store which 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



473 



he has conducted for three years. Luc)* O. 
is the wife of Wilhani L. Couch, a resident 
fernier of Odessa. Frances E. is the wife of 
Dr. C. S. Williams, a resident of Lafayette, 
New York, and they have one child, Mary 
Olive. Mary R. is the wife of Kirk Fowler, 
a resident of Enfield, Tompkins county, New 
York, where he follows farming. They have 
two children, Roland and Frances A. Will- 
iam L., the young-est member of the Jones 
family, is at home with his father. 

The subject of this re\iew devotes his 
attention to his fami work. At the time 
of his marriage he brought his bride to 
the home which they yet occupy and here 
they have lived continuously since, cover- 
ing a period of thirty-six years. By his 
careful management and enterprise he has 
prospered in his business and is to-day the 
owner of a good farm, while even,-thing 
about the place is neat and attractive in ap- 
pearance. 



JEROME B. HALL. 

Jerome B. Hall is now practically living 
retired in Schuyler county but owns a good 
farm in Orange township near Monterey 
and from this property derives a well merited 
income. A son of Benoni B. and Sarah 
(Maltby) Hall, he was born on the 14th of 
June, 1840, in the town of Orange, while his 
fi.'ther's birth occurred in the town of New-. 
field, in 181 5, and the mother was a native 
of the same place. In the family of this 
worthy couple were fi\e children : Jerome, 
.Augusta. Benoni. and Mary and Samuel, 
who are both deceased. 

At the usual age Jerome B. Hall entered 
the public schools, where he continued his 
studies until fourteen years of age. During 



that period he largely devoted his attention 
to farm work through the summer months 
and after putting aside his text books he car- 
ried on farming until he joined the Union 
army under the command of Captain Sher- 
wood of Company I, Eighty-sixth New York 
Regiment, known as the Steuben Rangers. 
He then went to the front. l)ut was taken ill 
a: Goodhope and was sent to the regiment 
hospital, where he remained for five months. 
On the expiration of that period he was dis- 
charged because of his physical disability and 
returned to ^lonterey. 

Not long after his return from the war 
Mr. Hall was united in marriage to Miss 
Frances \\'ager. Her father, Elias Wager. 
was born August i, 1820, in the town of 
Hector, Schuyler county. New York, and 
when he had attained to man's estate he 
wedded Margaret Kirtland. who was born 
in the town of Hector, Schuyler county, on 
the 1 6th of September, 181 8. Their only 
child was Frances, who became Mrs. Hall. 
The young couple began their domestic life 
in Monterey. The following year, 1864, 
Mr. Hall went to Elmira in-order to enlist, 
but was not accq)ted on account of his phy- 
sical condition. Before he had first joined 
the army he was a perfectly strong and well 
man and he couiil have gotten one thousand 
dollars for enlisting at the second time, if his 
health had not been impaired by his previous 
service. He now resides upon the hill at 
Monterey and in addition to his home prop- 
erty he owns a farm. This is cultivated un- 
der his supervision and brings to him a 
good return, but ho is not actively engaged 
in farm work. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Hall was 
blessed with one child, Ida. who lived to be 
thirteen years of age and died December i, 
1877. The ]iarcnts are Presbyterians in re- 



474 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



ligious faith, holding memljersliip with the 
church in Monterey, and in his pohtical 
views Mr. Hall is a Repuljlican, endorsing 
the principles of the party with which he 
has affiliated since attaining his majority. 
As his entire life has been passed in Schuyler 
county he has a wide acquaintance within its 
borders and that many who have known him 
from his youth down to the present are num- 
bered among his stanchest friends is an in- 
dication that his career has been an honor- 
able and upright one. 



DARIUS PARKER. 

Darius Parker is numi)ere(l among the 
honored veterans of the Ci\il war that New 
York has furnished to the Union, and in 
days of peace he is as true to the Union and 
as loyal to his country as when he followed 
the starry banner of the nation upon south- 
ern battle-fields. /\s a leading and influential 
citizen of Bradford, Schuyler county, he 
well deserves representation in this volume. 

He was born in the town of Barrington, 
Yates county, New York, on the 2d of Au- 
gust. 1830, and was one of ihe four children 
of James and Martha (Mullen) Parker. The 
father was a native of Bedford, Yates coun- 
ty, New York. Their children were John 
O., James R., William T., and Darius. The 
last named, having ac(|in'red a common 
school education, entered upon his business 
career. In tlic \ear iS()i he was married 
and began his domestic life in Campbell, 
Steuben county, New York. The lady of his 
choice was Miss Delilah S. Huff, and their 
n:arriage was blessed with three children. 
John R. married Miss Caroline George, and 
they reside in Austin, Pennsylvania. Lu- 



cilla is the wife of Harry Arnold, a resident 
of Cameron Mills, Steuben county, and they 
have two daughters. William B. married 
Miss Olive Jacoby, and their children are 
Lillian, Darius and Charles. Of this family 
Lillian became the wife of Everett Sherman 
and resides at New Bradford. Delia is the 
wife of Isaac Potter, and they have one child, 
Ella Estelle, who married Henry Rappelje, 
b\ whom she had two children. Ira L. and 
Lillian. 

On the 28th of March, 1864, Mr. Parker 
responded to the call of the Union and en- 
listed as a member of Company 1, One Hun- 
dred and I'Vjrty-hrst Regiment of \'cteran 
Reserves, with which he served until the 
close of the war. He now makes his home 
near Bradford. Throughout his entire busi- 
ness career he has carried on agricultural 
pursuits and is classed among the enterpris- 
ing and successful farmers of his coinnuuiity. 
In his political views he is an earnest Repub- 
lican, and in his religious faith is a Baptist, 
being numbered among the zealous, active 
and influential members of the church. 



EZRA C. JAYNE. 

Through seventy-two years — the entire 
period of his life — Ezra C. Jayne has lived 
in Cayuta. Here he was born on the loth of 
April. 1830. and throughout his business ca- 
reer he has carried on agricultural ])ursuits. 
He is a son of Daxid Javne. who was born, 
in Connecticut and after arriving at years 
01 maturity wedded Miss Margaret Ogdcn, 
also a native of that state. They were the 
parents of seven children, of whom five have 
passed away, namely: Sallie. Herman, 
Timotha, Eliza and David. Tra. the surviv- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



475 



ing brother of our subject, resides in Cayuta 
and is a prosperous and leading farmer of 
his community. 

In taking up the personal history of Ezra 
C. Jayne we present to our readers the life 
record of one who is widely and favorably 
known in Schuyler county. His education, 
acquired in the common schools, fitted 
him for life's practical duties and at the age 
of twenty years he put aside his text books, 
entering upon his business career as a mill- 
wright. He followed that pursuit through a 
long period, becoming an expert workman 
in that line. He built a shingle mill and cider 
mill, which he owned and operated for some 
years in connection with farming. As his 
financial resources increased he made judi- 
cious investments in land and he is now the 
owner of seventy acres. This farm was 
mostly cleared by his father. As the years 
have passed the labors of our subject have 
been rewarded by very desirable crops, 
which, finding a ready sale upon the markets, 
have returned to him a substantial income 
for his labor. 

lii 1866 Mr. Jayne was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Sarah J. Van Sile, who was 
born on the 22d of July, 185 1. Her parents 
were William and Maria Van Sile and in 
their family were the following children : 
Elsie, who has passed away ; George N. ; 
Joseph; Harriet; Abram; Albert; and Sarah 
J., also deceased. The last named became 
the wife of our subject and the mother of 
three children. Charlie, the eldest, was born 
May 30, 1872, and is a farmer still living 
at home. Addic, who was born December 
6, 1874, is the wife of Fred Bair and they 
have two children, Edna and Theodore. 
Anzi, born September 3, 1885, is still living 
with his father. In 1889 a sorrow came to 
the household through the death of the wife 



and mother, who passed away on the 9th of 
April, of that year, her loss being also deeply 
regretted by her many friends, for she was 
a most estimable lady who possessed excel- 
lent traits of heart and mind. 

For over three years duiing the Civil war 
Mr. Jayne was numbered among the boys in 
blue, being sergeant of Battery M, Third New 
York Light Artillery, which was assigned to 
the Army of the Potomac. For a time he was 
stationed at Arlington Heights and was in 
the battles of Newbern, North Carolina; 
Roanoke Island; Slater's Island and Wil- 
son's Wharf, and the sieges of Petersburg 
and Richmond. 

In religious belief Mr. Jayne has long 
been a Universalist and in politics he is a 
Democrat, believing firmly in the principles 
01 the party, whose platform he endorses by 
his ballot. For twenty-five years he has 
most efficiently and satisfactorily filled the 
office of justice of the peace. From a 
humble financial position he has steadily 
worked his way upward and his possessions 
are to-day the visible evidence of his life 
of industry, perseverance and enterprise. 



GEORGE PARKER. 

On the nth of December, 1902, there 
passed away one of Schuyler county's hon- 
ored and highly esteemed citizens — George 
Parker, whose life had been devoted to ag- 
ricultural pursuits. He was born in this 
county May 5, 1838, and was reared to the 
activity of farming, early becoming familiar 
with the duties of field and meadow. After 
completing his education, which was ac- 
quired in the common schools, he began 
farming on his own account, but at the time 



476 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



of the Civil war he put aside business and 
personal considerations in order that he 
might go to the front as a defender of the 
Union for his heart swelled with love of 
country and he believed in the just and hoped 
for the ultimate triumph of the Union army. 
It was on the i6th of May, 1861, that 
Mr. Parker enlisted, becoming a member of 
Company E, Twenty-third New York Vol- 
unteers under the command of Captain Pow- 
ers. Proceeding to the front he was in ac- 
tive service until honorably discharged on 
the 22d of December, 1863, but the war was 
not ended and the preservation of the Union 
doubtful. Plis loyalty, too, was unshaken 
and his patriotism undiminished. He there- 
fore re-enlisted in Company H, Tenth Reg- 
iment of New York Cavalry for three years 
01 throughout the remainder of the war. He 
participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, 
December 11, 1862; Brand's' Station, June 
9, 1863; Middlebury, June ;8'and 20, 1863; 
Gettysburg on the 2d, 3d and 4th of July, the 
same year; Mine Run, on the 26th of No- 
vember, and the 2d of December, 1863; the 
battle of the Wilderness on the 6th of May, 
1863 ; Spottsylvania, from the 8th to the i8th 
of November, 1863; Potomac, May 27 to 
31, 1864; Cold Harbor, the ist to the 12th 
of June, 1864; Shenandoah, from the 7th 
to the 24th of June ; the battle of Petersburg 
on the 26th of June; Reem's Station, August 
24 and 25, 1864 ; Poplar Springs, on the 30th 
of September and the 2d of October; Borden 
Roads, October 27 and 28; Hickford Road, 
December 11, 1864; and was present at the 
time of General Lee's surrender on the 9th 
of April, 1865. The total loss of the com- 
pany was two hundred and fifty. Mr. Par- 
ker was honorably discharged on the 19th of 
July, 1865, and soon afterward returned to 
his home in Waverly, New York. 



On the 1st of January, 1868, was cele- 
brated the marriage of Mr. Parker and Miss 
Mary Eliza Stone. They began their do- 
mestic life in Waverly, where they lived for 
five years and from there they removed to 
Odessa, our subject purchasing the farm on 
which he spent his remaining days. He de- 
voted his energies to agricultural pursuits, 
and his farm, which was rich and arable, 
yielded good returns for the labor he be- 
stowed upon it, so that he annually harvest- 
ed good crops that found a ready sale upon 
the market. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Parker was 
blessed with six children : Charles A., Will- 
iam L., James E., Frank; Frederick and 
^Mary Eliza. The wife and mother was 
called to her final rest on the 15th of January, 
1899, and since that time the daughter has 
acted as housekeeper for the family, which 
io one of prominence in the community, «i- 
joying the high regard of many friends. 



BARTON LELAND PIPER. 

Barton Leland Piper is actively connected 
with journalistic interests in Schuyler coun- 
ty His press has not only recorded the his- 
tory of advancement, but has also ever been 
the leader in the work of progress and im- 
provement, — the vanguard of civilization. 
The philosopher of some centuries ago pro- 
claimed the truth that "the pen is mightier 
than the sword," and the statement is con- 
tinually being verified in the affairs of life. 
In molding public opinion the power of the 
newspaper cannot be estimated, but at all 
events its influence is greater than any other 
single agency. In the line of his journalistic 
labors Mr. Piper has worked effectively for 




B. L. PIPER 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



479 



the general good and through the press has 
advocated many progressi\e movements 
v.hicli have benefited his locahty. 

A" native of the town of Dix, Schuyler 
county, he was born February' 23, 1869, his 
parents being Abner and Caroline (Scofield) 
Piper. His paternal great-grandfather, Ab- 
ner Piper, lived and died in the town of 
Reading, Schuyler county. His grandfatherj 
^^'illiam Piper, was a school teacher, his old- 
est son, Abner, being one of his pupils. He 
wedded Mary Hopkins and their children 
were: Abner. Samuel, Anson, Mary Jane, 
Cynthia, Frances, Maria, Ida, Lucinda, Min- 
nie, Phebe, Julia and Alice. Abner Piper 
was bom in Tioga county, Pennsylvania, and 
with his parents came to Schuyler county in 
early life. Here he was reared upon a farm 
and became accustomed to all kinds of work 
pertaining to agricultural pursuits. He fol- 
lowed farming on his own account after he 
had attained manhood and married Car- 
oline Scofield and they became the parents of 
three children, one of whom died in infancy. 
Those who reached mature years were Al- 
bert L. and Barton L. The father is a 
Democrat in his political views. 

In the district schools of his native town 
Barton L. Piper obtained his early education 
?nd then entered the Dundee Preparatory 
school, in which he was graduated in June, 
1890. being president of his class. He then 
engaged in teaching in the towns of Dix and 
Tyrone, where he followed that vocation suc- 
cessfully. Subsequently he acted as assistant 
editor for the Watkins Democrat under W. 
H. Baldwin, with whom he was associated 
for about six months, when he accepted a 
similar position on the Watkins Express, 
being with that paper about five years. On 
the expiration of that period he returned to 
the Democrat office, there remaining for 



eight months. In March, 1897, he pur- 
chased the Watkins Review from John Cor- 
bett and at diat time it was a;i independent 
sheet, but since Mr. Piper became owner he 
has published it in support of the Democracy 
and has since been doing the state printing 
for the Democratic party. He is editor, 
owner and publisher of his journal and its 
circulation has now reached twenty-four hun- 
dred copies weekly. The paper comes out 
on Wednesdays and is a bright, readable 
sheet, disseminating general news and items 
of local interest. In the managemait of his 
paper decided improvements have been made 
not only in the journal but also in the plant. 
He purchased and repaired the building, 
bought a new press and folder and is now oc- 
cupying a substiuitial brick structure on 
Franklin street, which is the main business 
street of Watkins. Both the press-room and 
job-printing department are thoroughly 
equipped with the latest improvements known 
to the business and he regularly employs six 
hands. 

On the 30th of .\ugust, 1894. occurred the 
marriage of Mr. Piper and Miss Antoinette 
G. Ellis, a daughter of Joseph H. and Estella 
(Leonard) Ellis, by whom he has two chil- 
dren, Ethel C, who was born October 20, 
1895; and Helen E., born June 27, 1898. 
Mrs. Piper is a native of Watkins, New 
York, her parents having lived at an early 
day in Beaver Dams, Schuyler county. 

Mr. Piper holds membership with Can- 
adesaga Lodge, No. 196, I. O. O. P., of 
Watkins, and Glen City Camp, No. 9315, 
M. W. A. In politics he is a Democrat, 
having unfaltering faith in the principles of 
the party. He is secretary of the Schuyler 
County Agricultural Society, which office 
he has held continuously since 1898 
and previous to that time he served in 



48o 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



the same position for a year, in 1894. He 
belongs to the Presbyterian church of Wat- 
kins- and both in the Hne of his business and 
as a private citizen he has co-operated in 
movements for the general good and is en- 
thusiastic concerning everything aiming to 
advance the interests of this favored section 
of the Empire state. 



WILLIAM MESSIG. 

Gardening is the occupation which claims 
the time, energy and attention of Mr. Messig 
and through his close application and un- 
tiring industry he is meeting with a fair de- 
gree of success in his work. He was born 
in Montour Falls, April 5, 1858, and rep- 
resents one of the old families of Schuyler 
-county. At the usual age he entered the 
ipublic schools where he pursued his studies 
until eighteen years of age. He then put 
^side his text books in order to become a 
factor in business life and at that time he 
■purchased eighteen acres of fine land, very 
rich and arable. At once he began garden- 
ing and has followed this business continu- 
ously since. His products find ready sale 
upon the market because of their excellent 
•quality and his sales annually reach a large 
amount. He prosecutes his work with dili- 
•gence and energ}' and thus his labor is bring- 
ing to him a very profitable return, render- 
Jng him a comfortable living. He has for 
the past twelve jears furnished %'egetables 
for the Glen City Sanitarium and still con- 
tinues to, this in itself making a very hand- 
Bome item in his business. 

Mr. Messig was united in marriage on 
'the 27th of September, 1890, to Miss Mary 
Bohmweitch. Her parents were both natives 
of Germany and never left that country. 



The father died there several years ago and 
the mother is still living. Mrs. Messig has 
a brother and sister, Fred and Sophy. Fred 
is living in the village of Hornellsville, New 
York. After residing there for three years 
Fred was united in marriage on the 7th of 
March, 1898, to Miss Marj^ Casey. They 
resided in Watkins for three years and then 
removed to Hornellsville, where he is em- 
ployed as the leading chef in the sanitarium. 
Sophy is living in Montour Falls. Since 
their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Messig have 
lived at the place of their present residence. 
They have a wide acquaintance in the com- 
munity and are much respected for their 
sterling worth. Having always lived in 
Schuyler county Mr. Messig is well ac- 
quainted with its history and through more 
than forty years he has witnessed its develop- 
ment and progress, taking an active interest 
in ever}'thing that pertains to the general 
good. 



GEORGE DENXIXG. 

George Denning is an honored veteran 
of the Civil war and one of the representa- 
tive farmers of Schuyler county. A native 
son of New England, he was bom in Con- 
necticut, on the 14th of July, 1830. His 
father, William Denning, was also a native 
of that state, where he remained until 1834, 
when he became a resident of Tioga county, 
New York. There he lived for twenty years 
and in that locality reared his family of 
thirteen children. He still survives, but in 
1898 he suffered a stroke of paralysis and 
has since engaged in no work. His children 
were as follows : Murray, Daniel, Jane, 
Robert, Hannah, William, Walter, Dennis, 
Henry, Chauncey, George, Sarah and Cor- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



481 



nelia. W'itli the exception of our subject, 
Daniel Denning is tlie only one now living. 
He was the second in order of birth and he 
resides in Big Flats, Chenuing county, where 
he owns and operates a farm and also does 
mason work. He wedded Mary Darrow 
and their children are as follows : Walter, 
who is married and follows the mason's 
trade in Canajoharie; Maiie, the wife of 
James Naland, who is employed in a l)arber 
shop in Elmira, Xew York ; Alice, who is 
married and lives in Binghamton ; Daniel, 
at home: .\ngeline, deceased; and Isabelle. 

George Denning, of this review, was 
only about four years of age when his parents 
left Connecticut, removing ^vith their family 
to Tioga county, New York. There he was 
reared to manhood, pursuing his education 
in the ])ublic schools until fourteen years of 
age, when he began earning iiis own living 
by working at the mason's trade. He fol- 
lowed that pursuit for some years but in 1863 
he put aside all business cares and considera- 
tions in order to respond to his country's 
call for aid. He enlisted as a member of 
Company B, Twenty-sixth Regiment of 
New York Volunteers and was under the 
command of General Sexton. He fought in 
a number of skirmishes and remamed at the 
front until the close of the war, when he re- 
ceived an honorable discharge and returned 
home. 

In the meantime Mr. Denning had been 
married, having in 1862, in Corning, wedded 
Miss l''ilinda .\. Reynolds. Their union was 
blessed with one child, Georgiana, who was 
born May 14, 1867, and is now the wife of 
George Cook, a resident of Nina. Tompkins 
coimty. New York, where he conducts a 
brickyard. 

Mr. Denning is now devoting his en- 
ergies to agricultural pursuits with good 



success. Starting out in life ior himself at 
the early age of fourteen years, he is a self- 
made man and one who deser\-es much 
credit for what he has accomplished, his pos- 
sessions having been won entirely through 
hi,' industry, enterprise and honorable 
dealing. 



SAMUEL B. COLE. 

For twenty years Samuel B. Cole has 
been engaged in general merchandising in 
Townsend. He is a self-made man, who, 
starting out in business life without capital, 
has steadily worked his way upward and is 
now numbered among the men of aftkience 
ir. his community. Systematic, trustworthy 
and persevering — upon this fountlatioii he 
has builded his jjrosperity and has awakened 
uniform confidence and good will by his in- 
tegrity and uprightness. 

Mr. Cole was born in the town of Catlin, 
Chemung county, on the J4th of January, 
1847, and is a son of Ira and Nancy ( Bailey) 
Cole, who were farming people lixing in the 
town of Catlin, where they settled in the 
year 1830. L'pon the farm which the father 
secured but one acre of land had been cleared 
and upon it stood a log house and a frame 
barn. With characteristic energy he began 
its further development and improvement, 
cleared the tract of land and placed it under 
a high .state of cultivation, making it a good 
farming pro])crty. In his family were seven 
children: I'licbc. George and Minerva, all. 
deceased; Miraiula; Susan: Charles: and 
Samuel. Of the living Miranda married 
James Gardner, a resident of Michigan, and 
tliey have one daughter. Bell. Charles, a res- 
ident of Watkins, ni.irried Aimira Wood- 
ruff and their children .nre I'rank, Florence 
and Ira. 



48: 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Samuel B. Cole was provided with good 
educational privileges and at the age of six- 
teen he left school to heconie an active factor 
in business life and to provide for his own 
support through his personal labor. For 
twelve years he was connected with fann- 
ing interests and tlien with the capital which 
he had acr|uireil through liis enterprise and 
economy he embarked in general merchandis- 
ing, opening a store in Monterey in 1880. 
There he remained for two years and then 
removed to Townsend, where he has r.ince 
niade his home and conducted a business that 
has constantly grown in volume Jind import- 
ance until it has reached quite extensive pro- 
portions for a town of the size. He carried 
a large stock of general merchandise of all 
kinds and has secured a liberal patronage by 
reason of his correct business principles and 
his earnest desire to please his customers. 

On the 23d of July, 1869. Mr. Cole was 
united in marriage to Miss Ursula Dean, a 
native of Townsend, and a daughter of Jarvis 
and ]Mary (Miller) Dean, natives of Putnam 
county, New York. They were the parents 
of ten children: Chester, now deceased] 
Jane; Samuel; Jarvis; Mary: Sophia, who 
has also passed away ; Samantha ; Catherine, 
who has departed this life; llulda : and 
Ursula. Unto Mr. and Mrs Cole were born 
four children: Dean J., the eldest, is con- 
nected with David Roe. Jr., of Ithaca, in the 
diy-goods business. Don S. has for six years 
been with M. B. Hughey, a shoe merchant of 
Watkins. Lloyd died at the age of nine 
years. Will J. was associated with liis fa- 
ther until recently, when he accepted a posi- 
tion in the dry-goods store of Henr}' Morris 
at Watkins. 

Mr. and Mrs. Cole have a pleasant home 
in Townsend. where their friends are many 
and where cordial hospitality is extended to 



them by the best families of the community. 
In his political views Mr. Cole is a Democrat 
and for sixteen years he has efficiently ser\'ed 
as the postmaster of Townsend. He also 
filled the office of assessor for two years and 
no trust reposed in him has ever been be- 
trayed in the slightest degree. He is a man 
of sterling rectitude of character and of un- 
questioned probity and his wife is a loyal 
and devoted member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church. 



O. P. BOWER. 



O. P. Bower was for many years an mi- 
portant factor in commercial circles in 
Schuyler county and his upr'ght life, as well 
as his success in business, made him one of 
the valued and respected citizens of the com- 
munity. He was born on the 2jd of Janu- 
ai-y. 1829, on the old Bower farm in Mon- 
tour Falls, and came of New England an- 
cestrv". His father, Isaac Bower, was a na- 
tive of Connecticut, and coming to Schuyler 
county. New York, cast in his lot with the 
early settlers who laid the foundation for 
the present progress and prosperity of this 
section of the state. He followed the occu- 
pation of farming and thus provided for the 
wants of his family. When he had arrived 
at years of maturity he married Miss Ellen 
Vangorder and they became the parents of 
four children : Melisent. Isaac. Phincas and 
Oliver Perry. 

Oliver Perry Bower, whose name intro- 
duces this record, was reared upon the home 
farm and early became familiar with the 
work of cultivating the field and caring for 
the crops. The common schools aflforded 
him his education privileges and after putting 
aside his text books he began earning his 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



483 



own living. Tlirougliout the greater part of 
his business career he conducted a grocery 
store in Watkins, carrying a well selected 
slock of goods, for which lie found a ready 
sale by reason of his fair prxes and honora- 
ble dealing. In that way he secured a liberal 
patronage and annually, therefore, realized 
a satisfactory profit from his labors. Before 
he attained his majority he became connected 
with the grocery trade, which claimed his at- 
tention until his life's labors were ended in 
death. 

In 1855 Mr. Bower was iniited in mar- 
riage to Miss Jane McClintock, a native of 
Watkins, and a daughter of Hugh Alexander 
and Elizabeth (Adams) McClintock. Her 
father was born in Sullivan count}', Penn- 
sylvania, while her mother was a native of 
Herkimer county. Xew York. They became 
the parents of twelve children, of whom Jane, 
Annie, Edwin E., Charles and Mina are li\' 
ii:g, while ^lartlia, George, Asa, Helen, 
James, Henry and Mary have passed away. 
Edwin married Elizabeth Gowen by whom 
he had ten children, and his home is in El- 
mira. Charles resides in Rochester, where 
he follows painting and paper-hanging. 
Mina lives in Rockford, Illinois, and is now 
Mrs. North. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Bower 
were born three children, but Ebb P. and 
Lottis C. have passed away. The only sur- 
\iving child is Nellie, who resides with Iicr 
mother in Watkins. 

Mr. Bower led a busy and useful life. In 
connection with the conduct of his store he 
also engaged in building boats for the lake 
and in this way lie added materially to'his in- 
come. He was a progressive, enterprising 
merchant and enjoyed the entire confidence 
of his patrons, many of whom traded with 
him through long years. In his political 
views he was a Republican ,'uul in religious 



faith he was a Universalist, In 1887 he was 
called to his final rest and left to his family 
not only a comfortal)le home but also an un- 
l;trnishcd name. Mrs. Bower anil her daugh- 
ter still reside in Watkins, where they have 
many friends. 



ALBERT KNAl'l' 



A fruit farm of eighty-four acres, valua- 
ble and well improved is occupied by Albert 
Knapp. 1 le is today regarded as one of the 
leading horticulturists of his section of the 
state and was bom in the town of Hector 
on the 15th of January, 1834. He is a son 
of Benjamin and Ann (Osborn) Knapp. 
The fatiier was a native of New Jersey and 
on leaving that state he came to Schuyler 
county, New York, settling in the town of 
Hector when he was a young man. By trade 
a miller, he followed that occupation 
throughout his active business career, be- 
coming one of the early representatives of 
that line of business in Schuyler county. He 
died about 1870 at the age of eighty years, 
having long survived his wife, who passed 
away when fifty-five years of age. 

Lender the parental roof Albert Knapp 
spent the days of his boyhood and youth ami 
at the usual age he was sent to the subscrip- 
tion schools, where he became familiar with 
the common English Iiranches of learning. 
He entered upon his business career in con- 
nection with the operation of a canal-boat 
and later he l)egan teaming, which he fol- 
lowed until 1875, when he turned his atten- 
tion to threshing. Tliat work claimed his 
attention continuously for more than a quar- 
ter of a century, but in 1901 he abandoned 
threshing and is now devoting his entire 
time and energies to the management of his 



484 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



farm and to tlie cultivation and care of his 

fruit. He has eighty-four acres which he 

works on shares and his annual sales of 

fruits are extensive and bring to him a good 

income. In his political views Mr. Knapp 

is a Republican, having never wavered in his 

allegiance to the party since he cast his first 

presidential \-ote for John C. Fremont in 

1856. 

•-•-* 

DA\'IU SHAPPIE. 

David Shappie has long traveled life's 
journey, tuning passed the eighty-second 
milestone. Old age, however, does not nec- 
essarily suggest as a matter of course idle- 
ness nor want of occupation. There is an 
old age which grows stronger and better as 
the years pass, not perhaps in physical 
strength but in character ;;nd purpose and 
in fidelity to duty, 'i'his is certainly the case 
with Mr. Shappie, wIkj has long been re- 
spected as a man of genuine worth and high 
principle here. 

He was born in Big Flats, Chemung 
county. New York. January 9, 1820, and a 
cc»nimon school education fitted him for his 
labors in later life. In his \outh he learned 
the blacksmith's trade, becoming en expert 
workman, and he followed that pursuit for 
many years, wt)rking beside the forge where 
the Hying sparks indicated his industry and 
enterprise. In this occupation he received a 
liberal patronage because bis work was good 
and as the years passed his trade brought 
t) him a very comfortable competence. Of 
Liter years, however, he has engaged in ped- 
dling, having a large wagon stocked with 
dry goods and groceries, which he sells 
throughout his section of Schuyler county. 
He has many regular patrons and his trade 
is constantly growing. 



In 1840 Mr. Shappie was uniied in mar 
riage to Miss Mary Ann Brees, who was 
born March 8, 1820, a daughter of Joel 
Purees. By this union were bom four chil- 
dren, namely : William, Egbert C, Mary E. 
and Joel B. The wife and mother died on 
the 9th of November. 1888. and Mr. Shap- 
pie was again married No\ember 17. 1889, 
his second union being with Juliet Burr, who 
died in 1893. The following year he wedded 
Sarah Ann Piatt, his presciit wife. Mary 
E.. our subject's only daughter, is now the 
widow of Abram Farr. l)y whom she had 
three children : Grace, deceased ; and Nettie 
B. and Fray D.. who reside with their mothei 
in Alpine. 

Politically Mr. Shappie is a Reiniblican, 
having supported the party since its organi 
zation. previous to which lime he gave his 
allegiance to the Democratic party. For 
many years he has been a member of the Free 
W^ill Baptist church, never wavering in his 
fidelity thereto. His Christian belief has ])er- 
meated his entire life and riade him a man 
of worth and honorable princijjle whose ex- 
ample is in many respects well worthy of 
emulation. 



JOSHUA HONSIE. 

When fourteen years of age Joshua Hox- 
sie began earning his own livelihood and the 
strong characteristics of his career have been 
unflagging industry, cntcrpri.sc and de- 
termination. These are the qualities which 
have won him a jilace among the successful 
farmers of Schuyler county. He was born 
in 1848 in Owego, Tioga county, New York. 
His father. Joshua B. Hoxsie. was a native 
of Dutchess county, tliis state, and after ar- 
riving at years of maturity he wedded Ma- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



48 s 



linda Hedglend, by whom he had the follow- 
ing cliildren : Phebe; Maria, now deceased; 
Josluia ; and Raymond. Tlie danghtcr is 
now the wife of Lntlier \'an Kuren, and tiiey 
reside in Bingliamton. Maria became the 
wife of Eplnaini Yost, of Owego, and tlieir 
children were: Anna, Esther and William. 
Raymond married Martha l-'oster and their 
children were Joshua Luther, Herman, 
Calvin. Maria and Martha. 

To the public school system of his native 
county Mr. Hoxsie of this review is indebted 
for the educational privileges which he re- 
ceived and which prepared him for life's 
practical and responsible duties. When four- 
teen years of age. however, he began work- 
ing as a farm hand by the month and was 
thus employed for one year, when he be- 
came a soldier boy. He was then but fifteen 
years of age, but in 1863 he enlisted as a 
defender of the Union, becoming a member 
of Company C. One Hundred and Ninth 
Xew York \^olunteer Infantry. He par- 
ticipated in thirteen important battles, in- 
cluding the battle of the Wilderness, Spot- 
sylvania, North Anna. Cold Harbor and 
Petersburg. The last named occurretl on the 
17th <if June, 1864, and he was in front of 
Petersburg from that time until .\pril i. 
1865. He was also in the battles of Weldon 
Railroad, Hatchie's Run, Big River, and sev- 
eral of lesser importance. On the 30th day 
of July, 1 864, he was wounded and as the 
result of his injuiy he has always suffered 
from a stifif ankle. Returning to his home 
he resumed farm work, which he has always 
followed. 

Mr. Hoxsie was united in marriage to 
Miss Maria Halwick. a daughter of John 
and Mary Ann (Turner) Halwick. In this 
family were but two children, Maria and 
Abbie, the latter the wife of Jacob Williams. 



Mr. and Mrs. Ho.xsie ha\e no children. 
They reside in Mont^)ur township near Odes- 
sa, where they have a pleasant home, sup- 
plied with many of the comforts and lux- 
uries of life. Throughout his entire busi- 
ness career our subject has carried on the 
work of held and meadow and his labors 
have brought to him a comfortable com- 
petence. When he joined the army, although 
he was but fifteen years of age, he gave his 
age as eighteen, hearing that otherwise he 
would not be allowed to enlist. The same 
patriotic de\otion which prompted his ser- 
vice has been manifest in his duties of citi- 
zenship throughout his entire career and he 
is a \alued resident of the community in 
which he makes his home. 



CHARLES AUSTIN 

Charles Austin is a well known farmer 
living in Di.x township, near Watkins, and 
is one of the native sons of the Empire state, 
his birth having occurred in Tompkins coun- 
ty, September u, 1857, his parents being 
C harles and Susan H. (Rose) Austin, who 
resided in I'cni. Tompkins county. Charles 
.\ustin acquireil his education in the com- 
mon sc1kx)1s, pursuing his studies until 
he reached the age of eighteen years. He 
became a civil engineer, mastering the 
I'tisjness in all of its branches anil for .some 
years he followed tliat pursuit. At the 
])rcsent time, however, he is devoting his 
attention to farming in Dix township. His 
property is under a high state of cultivation, 
e\erything about the place iieing in keeping 
with the progressive s])irit of the times. 

On the 30th of December, 1888, Mr. 
Austin was united in marriage to iliss Phebe 



4S6 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Sterling, a daughter of John Sterhng, who 
resided in Millport, New York, and in 1841 
was united in marriage to Eunice Latten. 
This union was blessed with two children, 
the younger being Eliza, now the wife of 
George Dean, a resident of Watkins, who 
owns two large farms and is a very prosper- 
ous and intluential agriculturist of his com- 
munity. Mr. and ^Irs. Austin began their 
domestic life at Bennettsburg, and there re- 
sided for seven years. On tlie '.'xpiration of 
that period they came to Watkins in 1896 
and have here since lived. Their marriage 
has been blessed with eight children : Xor- 
man. who is a nurse in the Glenn Springs 
Sanitarium: John. Ida, Phebe. Adeline, 
Harry, Esther and Lida, all of whom are ;it 
home. In politics Mr. Austin is a Republi- 
can and in. religious faith he is a Baptist. A 
substantial and highly respected resident of 
his community, he takes an acti\c interest 
in everything pertaining t(j the general good 
and has manv friends in this countv. 



GEORGE AIKEN SOULE. 

More than sixty-six years have passed 
since George Aiken Soule arrived in Schuy- 
ler county and he is therefore justly num- 
bered among her early settlers and leading 
citizens. He has been prominently identified 
with her business interests and hi;-, is an hon- 
orable record of a conscientious man who 
by his upright life has won the confidence 
of all with whom he has come in contact. 
Pie has reached the age of four score years 
and although the snows of many winters 
have whitened his hair he has the vigor of 
a much younger man and in spirit and inter- 
ests seems yet in his prime. He is still an ac- 



tive factor in business life and Schuyler coun- 
ty numbers him among its leading and in- 
lluential citizens. 

Mr. Soule was born in the town of Paw- 
ling, Dutchess county. New York, March 5, 
1822, his parents being Reuben and Olive 
(Irish) Soule. His paternal grandfather 
was born in France, while on the maternal 
side he comes of Irish lineage. He pursued 
his education in the schools of his native 
county and in Jones Academy of Connecti- 
cut, and when he had completed his studies 
he became a resident of Tompkins county, 
now Schuyler county, New York, locat- 
ing in Reynoldsville in 1836. Here he 
has since lived and his labors have been 
an element in the progress of the locality 
and at the same time have contributed 
to his individual success. For two years 
after his arrival he worked upon a farm 
and then learned the carpenter's and joiner's 
trade under the direction of James Haw- 
Ity, of Corning, and while serving his 
apprenticeship he went with his employer to 
Blossburg, working for two and one-half 
dollars per day. W'hile there he was offered 
any amount of coal lands for his labors, but 
he did not think those hills of any value and 
in consequence would not purchase. For 
a ([uarter of a century he was employed in 
liuilding and many of the substantial struct- 
ures of Reynoldsville stand as monuments 
to his thrift, enterprise and skill. He after- 
ward purchased a sawmill and for fourteen 
years was engaged in the manufacture of 
lumber. He tlien turned his attention to 
merchandising, purchasing a large brick 
store on the corner of the main street, and 
the Mecklenburg road, and when he had con- 
ducted it. for six years he sold it to Smith 
Kclley and removed to his present place of 
business next to the postoffice. He has a 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



487 



good store, carrying a \ ery large ami com- 
plete line of general merchandise and his 
trade jjrings to him a gratifying income. In 
all his lousiness relations, whether as a 
builder, manufacturer, a merchant. Mr. 
Soule has been found to be reliable, trust- 
worthy, energetic and progressive and the 
success which he has achieved is the legiti- 
niate outcome of his own labors. 

In his political views .Mr. Soule is an 
earnest Republican, having gi\en his sup- 
port to the party since its organization. In 
1858. he was elected collector, being the first 
one chosen to that position in the town of 
Hector. Subsetinently he was appointed to 
the office of constable and afterward to the 
position of under sheriff, serving during the 
incumbency of Sheriff Weaver. He was also 
oxerseer of the poor and has been notan.' 
public since the law created the office. ha\ing 
received one appointment after another to 
that position. His official connections with 
the schools likewise covers a long period for 
he has served as school trustee and for fif- 
teen years has Ijeen school clerk. 

In 1844 occurred the marriage of Mr. 
Soule and Miss Ada Reynolds, a daughter of 
Smith and Mary (Purdun) Reynolds. They 
had two children, Horace and Mary, but 
both are now deceased, and ]\Irs. Soule 
passed away in 1899, at the age of seventy- 
seven years. He belongs to the Order of 
.\merican Eagles and is a member of tlie 
Methodist Episcopal church. He served as 
secretary of the Sunday-school for one year 
and has assisted in the growth of the church 
and the extension of its influence. When he 
came to Schuyler county this was largely a 
new and undeveloped region and in the work 
or upbuilding and progress here he has taken 
a deep and helpful interest. He is now one 
of the oldest residents of the town of Hector 

28 



and certainly deserves honorable mention in 

this volume. Over the record of his public 

career and his private life there falls no 

shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil and the 

name of G. A. Soule is an honored one in the 

CL'mnuuiity. 

« ■ > 

ELIAS SWAX. 

.\mong the native sons of Canada who 
ha\e come to the United States to enjoy the 
livelier business opportunities of this coun- 
try and who ha\e gained success through 
earnest and honorable endeavor is Elias 
Swan, who was bom on the 6th of I-'ebruary, 
1840, in Montreal, Canada. His father, 
Elias Swan, Sr., was a Frenchman, born in 
that city in 1823. After arriving at years of 
maturity he wedded Eliza Simpson, a full- 
blooded Indian Ijelonging to the Stock 
Bridge tribe, which was located at Durham- 
ville, Xew York, and was afterward sent 
west by the United States government. By 
this union were born the following children : 
Elias, of this review : Charles Henry, de- 
ceased ; Maria ; Elisha : Judson ; Catherine ; 
Eliza; Charlotte; William Henry; Mary 
Elizabeth ; and William. 

Elias Swan, of this review, sjicni the 
days of his boyhood and youth under the 
parental roof, his minority being quietly 
passed. He enjoyed the pleasures of the 
playground and performed the duties of the 
schoolroom, also performing tasks which 
awakened in him ideas of business responsi- 
bility. He became a resident of the United 
States in 1840 and came to Schuyler coun- 
ty in 1896. 

On the 22(1 of March. iS^i. Mr. Swan 
was united in marriage io Miss Harriet 
Davies, a daughter of William Davies. a 



488 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



native of Elmira, Xew York, who lived to be 
seventy years of age. In his family were the 
following children : William Henry, Elnora, 
Charles Henry, Amelia, Jane, Elizabeth, 
Harriet, Lismon. Frank, (jeorge, Charles 
and Maggie. Our subject and his wife began 
their domestic life in Elmira and their home 
was blessed with the presence of eight chil- 
dren. Elias, tlie eldest, wedded Mary Will- 
iams, by whom he has one son, Ira, and their 
home is now in Horseheads, Chemung coun- 
ty. Frank, who married Anna Thomas, is 
interested in the brick business in Horse- 
heads. George, who wedded I<!a Taylor, 
was killed by the cars at Havana, New York, 
and his widow is now living in Elmira. 
Max Weldon is a resident of Philadelphia. 
Irvine, who wedded Lena Jetter. is a minster 
of the Methodist Episcopal church and now 
a member of the Michigan circuit. Anna 
makes her home in New Jersey and is ac- 
tively connected with Sunday-school work 
there. Legracie is the wife of Jerry Jack- 
st)n, of Odessa. Schuyler county, and the\' 
have three children, PiCrtha H., Aleck and 
Charles Henrie. Hattie, now deceased, com- 
pleted the Swan family. 

Mr. Swan and his wife reside in Cathar- 
ine township, near Odessa, where he is car- 
rying on agricultural pursuits. In his politi- 
cal \iews he is a Republican, strongly en- 
dorsing the principles of his party, and in 
religious faitli he is a Methodist, holding 
membershi]) witli the church of Odessa. 



C. M. EVERTS. 



The ancestral record of the E\-erts family 
can be traced back through many generations 
to John Everts, a native of England who 



came to America at a very early day in the 
colonial history of this country and .settled in 
Connecticut, making his home for many years 
in Salisbury, where his death occurred about 
1760. His son, Daniel Everts, was born in 
Salisbury, January 23, 1749, and in 1789 
was united in marriage to Charity \'an 
Duzen. He wedded Mrs. Polly (Ilurd) 
Kedfield, the widow of Nathaniel Redfield, 
and her birth occurred October 7, 1754. 
Daniel Everts had several children. 

The eldest. Colonel .\rautlias Everts, 
was born May 24, 1782, and with his father 
came from Connecticut to Xew York in 1791. 
llie family settling in Logan, where he after- 
ward jnuThased fifty acres of land, which 
he cleared and improved, and having no 
team he rolled the logs by hand. He wedded 
Margaret ^^latthews, a daugliter of .\niassa 
^latthews, and in 181 2 joined the American 
army, in which he held the rank of colonel. 
He commanded Fort Seneca, a Canadian 
fort, and when a flag of truce was sent to 
him with a demand to surrender, which de- 
mand was refused, tiie general commanding 
the enemies forces sent the following mes- 
sage to Colonel Everts : "I want you to 
understand that we will take our breakfast 
in this fort to-morrow morning" and to this 
Colonel Everts replied. "If you undertake it 
you will take your supper in hell." 

The second child of Daniel and Molly 
(Keeps) Everts was Charles G., the grand- 
father of our subject, who was born Septem- 
ber 17, 1783. Their children were Olive, 
born July 29, 1786; Daniel, born .\ugust 8, 
1788; Polly, born February 14. 1791 ; John, 
born February 24, 1793; -\scenia. born Feb- 
ruary 10, 1795: and .Vbra'.iam Hurd, born 
January 19, 1799. Daniel Everts died in 
the town of Hector in 1833 and was buried 
in the family burying ground here. He first 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



489 



ciJiiie alone to Schuyler county from Salis- 
bury. Connecticut, in 1791, and purchased. a 
large tract of laml in the town of Hector. 
He then returned to his native state. and in 
1 793 he came again, accompanied by Reuben 
Smith and three sons, arriving at Peach Or- 
chard, now Hector, on the 6th of June, 1793. 
With the aid of his .sons he cleared a patch 
of land and Iniill a rude log cal)in. in which 
they dill their own cooking. \'enison, tish 
anil game of all kinds was plentiful and 
furnished many a meal for them. They 
planted'a crop of corn and wheat and after 
harvesting this returned again to Connecti- 
cut, but in the spring of 1794 once more 
came to Hector, this time bringing their fam- 
ilies with them, their goods being packed 
upon sleighs and drawn by oxen, Jabez and 
Grover Smith, sons of Reuben Smith, mak- 
ing the journey on foot and dri\ ing the cat- 
tle. Daniel Everts settled on the farm where 
\\'^illiam Young now lives. 

Charles Everts, the father of our suljject, 
was a native of Salisbury, Connecticut, and 
became a man of strong character and de- 
termination. I'or many years he was re- 
garded as one of the leading farmers of the 
town of Hector, where he n'lade his home 
from early youth until his death, which oc- 
curred January 15, 1854. His remains were 
later interred in the Everts family lot in the 
town of Hector. Charles Everts married 
Clarissa Peck and they settled first near 
I.ogan and afterward upon the Lake road. 
They had three children: .\lfred, Alnicda 
and Adeline. 

Alfred Everts, a son of Charles Everts, 
was a farmer and tavern keeper and he owned 
and sold all of the lots where the village of 
Logan now stands. He also gave the ground 
on which was erected a church and be built 
many 1 )f the buildings in Logan. I le wedded 



limeline Warner, a daughter of Jarius and 
Jane (McCreary) Warner, and unto this 
marriage were Ixim seven children : Adelia 
Jane, Eunice B., Charles M., Clarissa A., 
Jarius, Emma and Mary E. l"or many years 
Alfred Everts was a captain in the militia 
company of T^ector and in early life he was 
a. Whig in politics, while later he became a 
Republican. He served at one time as trustee 
of his township and was a meu.ber of the 
^Methodist Episcopal church. 

Charles M. Everts, the immediate sub- 
ject of this review, was born March 23, 1841, 
in Logan in the town of Hector, and there he 
pursued his education, completing his high 
school course at Peach Orciiard. now Hee- 
ler, under the direction of i'rofcssor Gilett. 
Pie was a student there from 1858 until 1861 
and among the students of Professor Gilett 
was John .\rnott, of Elmira. who became a 
man of extensive wealth and important busi- 
ness and banking interests widely known 
tliroughout this section of the country. On 
the T7th of April, 1861, at the first call of 
President Lincoln for seventy-five thousand 
men to aid in the defense of the Union 
Charles M. Everts, being possessed of 
marked patriotism and love of country, of- 
fered his serxices and became a member of 
Company I of the Twenty-third New York 
Infantry, sometimes called the Southern 
Tier regiment. He was the third man to 
enlist from Schuyler county and was re- 
f|uested l>y his company, while quartered at 
Elmira, to serve them as first lieutenant, but 
declined to accept the office. The regiment 
vvas assigned to the .\rmy of the Potomac 
and in the first battle of that army the Twen- 
ty-third fought alone, this being at Ralls 
Crossroads on the 27th of August. 1861. 
Later the regiment was alone in the fight at 
Munson's Hill nu the 3d of September. It 



49° 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



stood in the lrt>nt line of the Army of the 
Potomac in tlie noted battle of Bull Run and 
was afterward in the following named en- 
gagements; Bristo, Falmouth, Rappahan- 
nock, Cedar Mountain, Sulphur Springs, 
Gainesville, the second battle of Bull Run. 
Fredericksburg, Belle Plaine and Antietam. 
At Rappahannock a shell exploded so near 
Mr. Everts" head that he was completely 
stunned thereby and for three days he lay 
upon the field of battle, the concussion and 
shock being so great that it completely de- 
stroyed the hearing of his left ear. On the 
22(1 of May, 1863, he was honorably dis- 
charged at Elmira. Xew York, where he was 
also mustered out of service, having com- 
pleted two years of the enlistment. The 
hardships whicli he liad endured while in the 
army were so great and die suft'ering so 
severe that he was reduced in weight from 
cue hundred and eighty-five to ninety pounds. 
For many years thereafter he was practi- 
c?.lly an invalid and he spent one year travel- 
ing in the west in the hope of being bene- 
fited thereby. Upon his return to the east 
he went to the oil fields of Pennsylvania, 
where he spent some years. 

During that time Mr. Everts was united 
in marriage in December, 1866, to Miss Em- 
ma L. Gibbons, a daughter of John and 
Susan (Stamebrook) Cjibbons, and a native 
of Venango county, Pennsylvania, born in 
1847. Mr. and Mrs. Everts Ijecame the par- 
ents of four children : Wilbur Whitley, who 
was born in 1868 and is the genial landlord 
of the Piurdett Hotel: Alfred Gideon, who 
was l)orn in 1871 and lives in Ithaca, Xew 
York ; Minnie L., born in 1873, now at home: 
and Harry H.. who was jjorn in T878 and 
is also in Ithaca at school. The family is 
one of the oldest, best known and highly re- 
spected families of the county and have 



lived to see this district a portion of three 
counties, first Seneca, then Tompkins and 
later Schuyler. 

Since his marriage Mr. Evens has con- 
tinuously carried on farming antl a part of 
his farm was comprised within the original 
purchase of his grandfather, Charles Everts, 
and is one of the best homesteads in the 
county, his residence commanding a most 
beautiful view of the surrounding country 
and of Seneca lake for a distance of forty 
nn'Ies. From this home one can see into four 
different counties of the state. The house 
stands upon an elevation on the Lake road 
between \\ atkins and Cieneva on the east 
side of the lake and the beautiful scenery of 
this portion of Xew York makes it a most 
delightful and attractive place of residence. 



JOSEPH H. HUGHEY. 

The history of Schuyler county is largely 
the account of agricultural development and 
progress. Among those now connected with 
the farming interests and who have helped 
to make this a garden spot f>n the great Em- 
pire state is Joseph H. Hughey He was 
born February 2. 1820. in the town of Mont- 
gomery, Orange county, Xew York, and is 
a son of Daniel Hughey, a native of the Em- 
erald Isle. The place of his birth was County 
Tyrone, and his natal year was 1801. He 
remained in the land of his nativity until 
1818, when he determined to seek his for- 
tune in America, believing that he would 
have better business opjjortunities in a land 
unhami)ered by caste or class. Accordingly 
he crossed the Atlantic and on reaching 
.\merican shores he continued his journey 
l)y land to Orange county, settling in the 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



491 



town of Moiitgonierv. He married Miss 
Ciiristiaii FJIisoii and tliey Iwcaine tiie par- 
ents of two cliiidren. Rlioda and Joseph. 

Tile latter spent tlie days of liis boyhood 
and yoiitli uniler tlie ])arental roof and from 
tlie age of six until twenty years his atten- 
tion was largely devoted in the ac(iuirement 
oi an education in tlic ])ui)lic schools. He 
then entered upon his business career, which 
has been a prosperous one, and now he is 
accounted one of the leading and influential 
fr.rmers of his comnnmity. 

On the I.St of December, 1850, Mr. 
Hughey was united in marriage to Miss 
Mary Love, a daughter of Joseph and Jane 
(Hughey) Love. Her father was born in 
Schuyler county and made his home on 
Sugar Hill. In his family were four chil- 
dren: Robert, deceased; William: ]\lary: 
and Jane. William, a farmer of Tyrone, 
New York, married ^Lnrgaret \\'augh, and 
has two children, Robert anJ James, lioth 
residents of Tyrone. The latter wedded 
Mary Robison, while the former is unmar- 
ried. Unto Mr. and IMrs. Hughey were 
born two children : Diantha is the wife of 
James Ciraham, of Watkins, and has four 
children, .\nnie, .\daline, William and Clay- 
ton, all at home. Daniel, also a resident of 
Watkins and a farmer by occupation, mar- 
ried Eliza Love and has two children : Jo- 
scjih and Amasa. 

.\t the time of their marriage Mr. anrl 
Mrs. Hughey located at I'ine Cirove, where 
they lived until i8<S2, and then removed to 
Watkins. Here they have since resided and 
Mr. Hughe\- has continuously carried on 
agricultural pursuits. He has a good tract 
of land and his careful attention and thor- 
ough knowledge of the best methods of 
fanning has made the soil very productive, 
sf) that he annually garners rich crops. His 



time is thus largely devoted to the care :ind 
improvement of his tine farm, yet he tinds 
opportunity to faithfully ilischarge his duties 
of citizenship and co-i)])erate heartily in any 
movements which he deems are for the gen- 
eral good. In his political views he is a 
Democrat and in his religious faith he is a 
Presbvterian. 



WILLI.\M WARDE.\. 

William Warden look up his abode up- 
on his farm in .Monterey in lyoo and is n<~iw 
devoting his energies to agriciiltural pur- 
suits. He is a son of Sullivan and Cornelia 
M. (Wartz) Warden, and was born in the 
town of Tyrone. Schuxlcr county, on the 2Jd 
of March, 1842. His father was a native of 
Connecticut and in earl\- life removed to the 
Empire state, settling in the town of Tyrone, 
where he became ac(|uainted with and mar- 
ried Miss Wartz. They have three chil- 
dren : William, Ethan J. and Henrietta. 

Under the parental roof the subject of 
th.is review was reared and continued his 
education in the public .schools until he 
reached the age of twenty years. He then 
gave his entire attention to farming for a 
few months and on the 8th of I'ebruary, 
1863, put aside business considerations in 
order to aid his country, then engaged in 
ci\il war. He went to IClmira for the pur- 
pose of enlisting, desiring to join his brother 
who was already in the army, but he wa.s not 
accepted for the service. Accordingly he re- 
turned home and in March of the .same year 
he was married. On the 8th of July, follow- 
ing, however, he was drafted for the army 
and was sent to Owego, Xew York, where ho 
passed an examination, after which he was 
ordered t(^ South Carolina, as a member of 



49^ 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Company E, One Hundred and Fifty-sev- 
enth New York Regiment, under the com- 
mand of Captain Burlingame, of Cortland, 
Xew ^'ork. After drilling for three or four 
weeks he was taken ill and sent to the hos- 
pital. Four weeks later he received orders 
to go to Jacksonville, Florida, to join his 
regiment, and there was detailed for special 
service in the post hospital as hookkeeper, 
occupying that position for two months. He 
was next sent to Hilton with orders to report 
to the telegraph oflice for duty and was put 
to work carrying dispatches. ^Vhile there 
he learned something of telegraphy and af- 
ter he !iad mastered the art he was sent to 
Seabrook Island to take charge of a small 
office, which he controlled for four weeks. 
He was then ordered to a place called Tele- 
phone Landing, where he remained for two 
months, when the rebels left that locality 
and he reported back to the superintendent 
of the telegraph service. In the meantime 
the superintendent had communicated with 
the secretary of war and secured the release 
oi Mr. Warden from his regiment, assign- 
ing him to the telegraph corps. After this 
he was sent south. He received the first dis- 
patch that was sent to the war department 
concerning the assassination of Abraham 
Lincoln. Later, by reason of special order 
of the war department, he was granted an 
honorable discharge, after two and one-half 
years of service. He then returned to Ty- 
rone, where he lived until 1900. when he 
purchased a farm at Monterey and has since 
made his home here. 

As before stated, Mr. Warden was mar- 
ried in March, 1863, the lady of his choice 
being Miss Jane Dean, a daughter of Jarvis 
X. and Polly (Miller) Dean, the former a 
native of Seneca county. New York, while 
the latter was born in Dix. Their, children 



were : Chester, now deceased ; Jane ; ]Mary ; 
Samantha; Hulda; Samuel; and Catherine 
and Euphias, both of whom have passed 
away. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Warden 
has been blessed with two children, Fred N. 
and Jennie M.. the former still residing at 
home. He married Annie Fleet and they 
have one child. Jennie is the wife of Lewis 
Van Annum, a resident of Monterey. Mr. 
and Mrs. Warden have many warm friends 
in Schuyler county and enjoy the hospitality 
of a large number of the best homes not only 
in Monterey but in the town of Tyrone and 
wherexer thev are known. 



PETER WILSON. 



Throughout his entire life Peter Wilson 
has resided in Schuyler county and he is now 
eighty-one years of age. His father, Albert 
Wilson, was a native of New Jersey and be- 
came one of the pioneers of Schuyler county. 
New York. He married Rebecca Miller, 
and their children were Abram, Eliza. Mary 
and Peter, the last named being the subject 
of this review, who was Ixim Octolier 21, 
1 82 1, in the town of Catharine. The snows 
of many winters have whitened his hair, but 
he is young in spirit and in interests. His 
mind, too, is stored with many reminis- 
cences of the early clays before this county 
was crossed and recrossed by railroads and 
before many of the improvements now so 
common had been introduced. He pursued 
his education in the common schools of that 
period, although the methods of instruction 
were very different from what the)' are at 
the present lime. He had few text books. 
The temple of learning was but a crude little 
structure. However, he managed to lay the 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



493 



foundation for good general infornintion 
and to his knowledge lie has continually 
added through experience, observation and 
reading as the years have passed. In early 
life Mr. Wilson learned tlie trade of a car- 
penter and joiner, thoroughly mastering the 
business, in which he became an expert 
workman, so that his services in that regard 
were in continual demand. .\s a representa- 
tive of the trade he was ever found accurate 
and trustworthy and true to the confidaice 
reposed in him. this enabling him to become 
an active factor in building operations in his 
community, and many substantial structures 
in this part of the county now stand as mon- 
uments to his thrift, his enterprise and his 
handiwork. 

In 1841 ^Ir. Wilson was united in mar- 
riiige to Miss Helen Bronson. They began 
housekeeping in Havana, and for over sixty 
years they traveled life's journey together, 
sharing with eacli other the joys and sor- 
rows, the adversity and pros[)erity which 
always checker the career of man. Mrs. 
Wilson was a daughter of William and 
\\'ealthy Bronson, who settled in Schuyler 
county at a very early day. By her mar- 
riage she became the mother of tlnxe chil- 
dren, but Charles, the first in order of birth, 
is now deceased. The daughter, ^lary, is 
the wife of !Marwin Perry and resides in 
Odessa. E. K. Wilson, the living son, is 
now in the employ of the Illinois Central 
Railroad Company, in Chicago, Illinois. 
Mrs. Wilson was long a devoted Christian, 
holding meml)ership with the Methodist 
church. She departed this life November 
9, 1902. dying as she hatl lived — a devout 
Christian, a dear. loving m<ithcr=. a kind 
friend and neighbor, beloved by all who 
knew her for her manv kind deeds in time 



of sickness and trouble, ll may truly be 
saiil a good \\oman is dead. 

In politics Mr. Wilson is a Democrat. 
He resides in Odessa, w here he has made his 
home since 1895. He carried on his build- 
ing operations for many years, but now 
superintends the conduct oi his little farm 
of ten acres, lie has reached a ripe old age 
and has led a life which should serve as a 
lesson to the young and an inspiration to his 
contemporaries. His entire life has been 
permeated with i)rinciples of upright man- 
hood, and thus he has gaineil and retained 
the respect and good will of tjiose with 
vi horn he has been associated. 



JAMES U. SMITH. 



James B. Smith, who resides in Wat- 
kins, has for more than twenty years been 
upon the road as a traxeling salesman and 
is a verjr successful representative of this 
line of business activity. He was born in 
the city of New York, July 4, 1858, and is 
a .son of Martin Terry and' Jennie (Latlin) 
Smith. The father was born in Buffalo, 
where he grew to manhood and acquired a 
common-school education. The mother was 
a native of \^ermont, lx)rn near St. Albins, 
and while she was still quite young her par- 
ents renio\cd to the \illage of Herkimer, 
New York, where her girlhood days were 
passed, wiiere her education was acquired 
and where she gave her hand in marriage to 
Martin T. Smith, Mr. Smith was engaged 
in clerking in a store at that time. I)ut after- 
word turned his attention to the hotel busi- 
ness, which he followed during the greater 
part of his life. He would erect a hotel, 



494 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



conduct it for a time ami then, wlien lie 
found a favorable opportunity, sell it at a 
profit. He l)uilt the hotel in Watkins which 
stood at the comer of l-'ranklin and Third 
streets, where the Duriand hardware store is 
now located. He also built the Park Hotel 
in Bath, which he sold, and at one time he 
served as weighmaster in the custom house 
of New York city under the administration 
cf President Buchanan. He also had a hotel 
in Cuba. Allegany county. Xew ^'ork. and 
died in that place in 1894. 

James B. Smith, of this review, was only 
;il)out nine years of age when his parents left 
Xew '^'ork city, removing to Bath. He af- 
terward returned to the metro])olis, and in 
1867 came to Watkins with his parents. 
'J"he father then erected his hotel here, re- 
maining a resident of this place until about 
1871. Mr. Smitii. of this review, pursued 
his studies in the public schools of Watkins 
and afterward in .Amsterdam. New York. 
Going to the west he locaterl in Kansas City. 
Missouri, where he was engaged in handling 
teas, coffees, spices and other such goods for 
four years. When about twenty-two years 
of age he went ui)on the road as a traveling 
salesman for a Chicago house. In 1880 he 
returned to Watkins. where lie has since 
made his home. For more than two decades 
be has been u])on the road, now representing 
the Cook & Bernheimer Company, of New 
"^'ork city. He is a ])<>])ular salesman, his 
unflagging courtesy, obliging" manner and 
genial <lisi)osition. as well as his energetic 
business methods. m;iking him a favorite 
and winning him many friends. 

In the fall of 1880 Mr. Smith was mar- 
ried in Erie. Pennsylvania, the lady of bis 
choice being Miss l'".ll;i ^'oung. who w;is 
lioni in Watkins. a daughter of Henry and 
Susan (Misner) Young. In addition to his 



home in Watkins .Mr. Smith owns a farm of 
fifty-two acres in the town of Dix. and this 
he has developed from a marsh into a good 
truck farm, which be has drained and has 
operated for two years. He also owns some 
unimproved property in Watkins. Mr. 
Smith belongs to the E])iscopal church, 
bis wife to the Presbyterian church, and both 
are widely and favorably known in the vil- 
lage which is their place of residence. 



n.WlD HICKS. 



Da\"id Hicks, wlio is engaged in agricul- 
tural pursuits in the town of Dix, Schuyler 
county, is one of the native sons of this por- 
tion of the state, bis birth having occurred 
on the 2d of May. 184.^. in the township 
wliich is still his lionie. lie is a .son of Solo- 
mon Hicks, who was born in Connecticut, 
r^ctober 23, 1803, coming here with the fam- 
ily in boyhood, since which time rej^resenta- 
tivcs of the name ha\c been active and in- 
(hiential citizens of Schuyler county, taking 
a deep interest in everything pertaining to 
the general good and to the substantial up- 
I'uilding of this jiortion of the state. .After 
arriving at years of maturity the father of 
our subiect married Anna .Mien, a native of 
Orange county. New ^'ork. and unto thorn 
were born ten children, namely : .\bby Jane. 
W'illiam. Silas, r-'annie. Sarah. Hannah, 
llaltie. I.ydie. David and .\ndrew. Those 
still li\ing besides our subject are Silas and 
.Andrew, both residents of Townsend and 
farmers by occupation; and Sarah, now Mrs. 
(iarrett Miller, of Watkins. 

.At the usual age David Hicks entered 
the ])ul)lic schools, where he pursued his 
education until he reached the age of four- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



495 



teen. He was reared upon llie Imme farm 
and almost as soon as old enough to readi 
tbe ])lo\v handles he hegan work in the fields, 
early gaining practical exjierience concern- 
ing the hest nielliods ol caring for land am! 
developing crops. After putting aside his 
text hooks he gave his entire attention to 
farm work until he joined the army. His 
]iatriotic spirit aroused by the continued at- 
tempt of the .south to o\ertliro\\ tiie I'nion. 
on the 1 4th of .-\ugust, 1S62, he offered his 
services to the government, becoming a 
member of Company .\, One Hundred and 
Forty-first Xew York \'olunteer Infantry. 
He particijiated in several engagements, 
being under steady fire at Suffolk, Virginia, 
for over a week. He was also in lively en- 
gagements at Baltimore Crossroads and at 
Suffolk Trestle Blockhouse and (ioldsboro, 
.\orth Carolina, .April 10, 1865, which was 
one of the hard fought battles of the war. 
Hostilities having ceased, he received an 
l-ionoral)le discliarge June 9, 1865, and re- 
turned to his home. 

On the 31st of .\ugust, 1862, Mr. Hicks 
was united in marriage to Miss Eliza M. 
Hutchens. who was born in the town of Dix, 
a daughter of Lester and Mary (Woodward) 
Hutchens. Her father was born in Herki- 
mer county. Xew York. June i~. 1823. was 
a farmer by occupation and resided in the 
town of Dix. He wcdiled Miss Mary 
Woodward ruiil tiieir cln'ldren were four in 
raimber: Eliza, wife of our subject: .\<1- 
dell A., wife of James T. Drake, a resident 
farmer, tliresher and miller of Townsend; 
Ollic .\.. deceased; and Mary D., wife of 
Frank \\'(X)dward, who formerly engaged 
in farming but is now driving stage between 
Monterey and Watkins. his home being in 
the fomier place. 

The home of .Mr. and Mrs. Hicks has 



been blessed with one child, Lizzie B., who 
is now the wife of E. K. Corwin, a resident 
ol Wedgwood. From the time of his mar- 
riage down to the present time Da\id Hicks 
has carried on agricultural pursuits and his 
work has brought to him creditable and 
gratifying success. He li\es in the town of 
Dix, where he has three acres (_)f land and 
the place is aral)le and productive. Each 
year he harvests good crops as a reward for 
his labor and now he is in the possession 
ol a comfortal)le competence which has l>een 
gained entirely through his own efforts. In 
matters of citizenship he is public spirited 
and progressive and withholds not his sup- 
port from any movement or measure which 
he believes will contribute to tlie general 
good. 



CHARLES KIMBLE. 

Charles Kimble, who follows farming in 
Abontour township, ne<'ir Wedgwood, was 
Ixnn on the i8th of Febniary, 1862, and is 
a son of Philip Kiuible. whose birth occur- 
red in the town of Enfield, Tompkins coun- 
t\-, Xew York, in the year 1829. .After ar- 
ri\ing at rears of maluriiy he married 
Louisa Ferguson, and unto them were bom 
three sons, Er\in, Emmet and Charles. The 
first named is now a resident of Penn.syl- 
\ania. where ho is oni])loyc(l in a grocery 
store. Emmet married Daisy L"armen and 
is resitling in Watkins. 

In taking up the persona! liistory of 
Charles Kimble we note that his early life was 
quietly passed. He attended school until 
twelve years of age, when his education was 
completed as far as school work was con- 
cerned, although he has since largely broad- 
aicd liis know ledge tln-ough reading, experi- 



496 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



ence and obserxatioii. When but twelve 
years of age he began earning liis own hve- 
hhood by working as a farm hand. As the 
years passed and his strength and efficiency 
increased, his wages were likewise propor- 
tionately increased and in course of time he 
began farming on liis own account. 

As a companion and helpmate for life's 
journey he chose Julia Osman, a daughter 
of Samuel and Maria (Moore) Osman. 
Her father is a blacksmith by trade and 
throughout his business career has carried 
on work along that line. In their family 
were four children: Burton, who is now 
serving with the United States army in the 
Philippines ; Charlie, who is learning the 
blacksmith's trade in Mosherville, New 
York; Harry, at home: and Julia, the wife 
of our subject. The marriage of Mr. and 
Mrs. Kimble has been blessed with five chil- 
dren : Mina, Viola, Charlie, P""rank and 
Lil)l)ie, all of whom are still under the pa- 
rental roof, the family circle yet remaining 
unbroken by the hand of death. The chil- 
dren are students of the public schools. Mr. 
Kimble and his family have a pleasant home 
upon his farm in Montour township. He 
represents a progressive type of farmers and 
his work as an agriculturist has been at- 
lemled with a very gratifying degree of suc- 
cess, making him one of the leading and 
substantial residents of his communitv. 



WILLIAM FLANDERS. 

William Inlanders, who carries on agri- 
cultural pursuits in Schuyler county, his 
home being in Cayuta, w-as bom in Chau- 
tauqua county. New York, on the 4th of 
January, 1832. He represents an old New 



England famil}-, his father. John Manders, 
having been born in Bennington county, 
\'ermont. of which county the mother of our 
subject was also a native. She bore the 
maiden name of Adeline Skidmore and by 
her marriage became the mother of four 
children, namely : William, of this review ; 
Bert and Emiline. lx)th deceased; and Caro- 
hne, who is the wife of Peter Vanato, a resi- 
dent of Erie, Painsvlvania, by whom she 
has three children. 

In his parents' home William Flanders 
s])ent the days of his boyhood and youth, 
and during that period largely mastered the 
branches of English learning usually taught 
in the common schools of this state. In 
starting out in life for himself he sought a 
companion and helpmate for the journey 
r.nd on the 15th of July, 1855. he led to the 
marriage altar ^liss Jane Reynolds, who 
was born in the town of Erin, Chemung 
county. New York, on the 30th of May, 
1830. Her father. Thomas Reynolds, was 
a native of Bennington county, \'ermont, 
and wedded Nancy Cowell, by whom he had 
eight children : Merritt, who has now passed 
away ; Andrew, who is living in the town of 
\'eteran with his wife and two children, the 
former ha\ ing borne the maiden name of 
Calista Ray; Grant, who is deceased; Jane; 
John; Jerome; Jefferson: and Mary. The 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Inlanders, of this re- 
\iew, has been blessed with four children. 
Nancy Ella, their first born, is now the wife 
of Eugene Leonard, a fariuer residing in 
Mecklcnberg, New York. Stella Adeline, 
the second of the family, is deceased. ^Jary 
Jane is the wife of Delell Rafferty. who is 
engaged in blacksmithing in Chemung, New 
York, and they have four children. Alyene, 
the youngest memlier of the Flanders fam- 
ily, is the wife of I'rank Stamp, of Cayuga 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



497 



county, Xew ^'ork. and they have five cliil- 
dren. 

Mr. and Mrs. William Flanders reside 
in Cayuta and he is giving his time and at- 
tention to the supervision of his farming in- 
terests. Throughout his business career he 
h.as carried on agricultural pursuits and is 
to-day the owner of seventy-one acjxs of 
land. He is systematic and methodical in 
his work, and his well directed efforts as an 
agriculturist, combined with capable man- 
agement and sound business judgment, have 
won to him a creditable degree of prosperity. 
He is identified with the Methodist church 
as one of its active and influential members, 
and his political support is given to the 
Democracv. 



WILLIAM D. WILCOX. 

William Disbrow \\'ilcox is now engaged 
in mercliandising in the town of Logan, and 
is also capably serving as postmaster there. 
He is a self-educated and self-made man, and 
in his determination to advance in life is 
shown forth the elemental strength of his 
character — a strength which has character- 
ized his entire career and made him a lead- 
ing and influential citizen of his community. 
He was born in Havana, now Montour Falls, 
X^ew York, on the 3d of January, i860, and 
is a son of Xelson Winton and F.lizada 
(Townsend) Wilco.x. The family is of 
English ancestry and was founded in Amer- 
ica at an early day. The great-grandfa- 
ther of our subject, William Wilcox, was a 
resident of Meriden, Connecticut, and alx)Ut 
1792 emigrated from that state to Xew 
York, settling in the town of Dix, Schuyler 
county. Here he purchased land and devel- 
oped a farm. Since that tunc rei)resenta- 



lives of the name have been residents of 
Schuyler county and have been active and 
helpful factors in its development and prog- 
ress. 

In the district schools of his native town 
\\ illiam 1). Wilcox pursued his literary edu- 
caliciii .-inil afterward, desiring to enjoy bet- 
ter adxantages, lie w orked for .Asa Coe, while 
attending the school at Johnson settlement, in 
Catharine township, for one term. When 
his school days were over he began earning 
his own living. He had no capital to assist 
him at the outset of his career, but he deter- 
mined to make tlie most of his opportunities. 
He worked by the day botii at farming and 
lumbering and v.as thus employed until the 
:st of .\prii, 18Q3, when with the capital ac- 
(|uired througii his own exertions he cm- 
barked in merchandising for himself at Lo- 
gan. Here he has since been located, con- 
ducting his store with good success, and in 
addition U> iiis merclKuulising affairs he has 
served as postmaster, having been appointed 
to the office on the 24th of August, 1895. 
He likewise owned an interest in a threshing 
macliine and sawmill, being connected with 
these enterprises for three years pri<ir to the 
time when he began merchandising. 

On the 2 1 St of .August, 1879, occurred 
the marriage of Mr. Wilcox and Miss Char- 
lotte L. Worden, a daughter of Gabriel and 
Elizabeth (Odell) Worden. Their mar- 
riage has been Iilessed with six children, 
namely: i'llizabeth, Luna, Bertha, Stella, 
Laura and William. The family is one of 
lirominence in the community, tlie members 
(if the household occujjying an enviable posi- 
tion in st)cial circles. Mr. Wilco.x is a 
member of Xorth Hector Lodge, Xo. 311, 
K. I'., and in his ])i>Iitical affiliations he is 
indqiendent, supporting men and measures 
rather than iKirtv. lie attends the Meth- 



498 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



odist Kpisci'i);!! cliurcli and is a citizen of 
worth wlio co-operates in many measures tor 
the general good and for the welfare of the 
communitv. 



W ILLIA.M SUPPLER. 

Among the citizens of Sclniyler county 
that the Emerald Isle has furnished is num- 
bered \\'illiani Suijpier. who was liorn in 
Ireland on the 25th of March, 1827. His fa- 
ther, Thomas Supi)ler. spent his entire life 
in Ireland and was there united in marriage 
to Jane Driscol, a native of the same coun- 
try. They l:)ecamc the parents of six chil- 
dren : Alary. William. Afargarct. Anna. 
P.ettic and Jane. 

Of this number our subject was the sec- 
ond in order of birth and spent the days of 
his Ixjyhood and youth in his nati\e country, 
being indebted to its public school system 
for the etlucational privileges he enjoved. 
His life has been one of earnest toil and all 
tliat he has accomjilished has been secured 
through hrni ])ur])(ise and unfaltering dili- 
gence. .\t the age of twenty-five years he 
cho.se as a companion and helpmate for life's 
journey Miss Driscol, the wedding taking 
lilace in Ireland. She was a daughter of 
George Driscol. who was born in Ireland and 
there united in marriage to Miss Maria Par- 
ric. Their children were Mary, Nora. Mar- 
garet, Ellen and Gena. The home of Mr. 
and Mrs. Suppler was blessed with six chil- 
dren. Maria, who is now living in Elmira. 
Xew York: John. wIki makes his home in 
the same .state; Maggie, the wife of John 
Mead, a resident of Elmira; William, who is 
living there, as is Thomas and Mere, who 
completes the family. 

Mr. Suppler of this review continued tn 



make his home in the land of his nativity un- 
til iSSo. when he resolved to try his fortune 
in .\nicrica, attracted by the opportunities 
arid privileges of the new world. Accord- 
ingly, he bade adieu to home and friends and 
in 1880 sailed for the United States. He 
took up his abode in Havana, now Montour 
I'alls, and has since lived in Schuyler county. 
His home is now in Dix township, near 
l/caver Dams, where he is engaged in farm- 
ing, lie has reacheil the age of seventy- 
five years, and is a venerable and respected 
man, whose circle of friends is extensive. He 
has been the architect of his own fortunes 
and has builded wiselv and well. 



JOHX 1). WILLIAMS. 

Jiihn 1). Williams, who is a son of Henrv 
and Camlinc (Allen) Williams, was born in 
the town of Windham, Bradford county, 
Pennsylvania, on Christmas Day of 1866, 
and is now a progressive and ])ractical young 
farmer of Catharine township. Schuyler 
county. His i)aternal grandparents were na- 
tives of Ciermany, and at a very early day 
crossed the Atlantic to America, becoming 
residents of the Keystone state. Henry 
Williams, the father of our subject, has car- 
ried on agricultural pursuits throughout his 
business career, l)eing at the present time the 
owner of a nice farm in Catharine township. 
He married Caroline .Allen, a daughter of 
John Allen, who was born in the year 1812 
aufl \\h') w ith his w ife crossed the briny deep 
tf) the new world from England, establishing 
a home in this coiuilry. Unto Mr. and Mrs. 
\\'illiams were born four children : John D., 
Charles E.. Margaret and James. 

h)hn D, Willi.anis. the eldest of the fam- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



499 



ily, continued liis education in tlie puljlic 
scliools until fifteen years of age, after wliicli 
lie went upon the road with the Adam Fore- 
]iaugh circus. Siil)se(|uently he liesjan tir- 
ing on the Erie Railroad, following that pur- 
suit for seven years, and later he worked in 
a tunnel, handling dynamite for two jears. 
'I'his was a very dangerous husiness, but ow- 
ing to the care of Mr. Williams no accident 
occurred. His attention was afterward giv- 
en to the operation of a threshing machine 
for two years, and since that time he has 
been engaged in general work. In his po- 
litical views he is a Republican, and in re- 
ligious faith is a Methodist. 



JOHN B. MACREERY. 

.\t the age of twelve years John B. Ma- 
creery started out in business on his own ac- 
count and as the architect of his fortunes has 
builded wisely and well, using diligence, res- 
olution and enterprise as the foundation upon 
which to rear the superstructure of his suc- 
cess. He is now engaged in dealing in coal 
and in shipping hay, grain and straw, and 
his business is constantly growing in size 
and profit. 

Mr. Macreery was born in the town of 
Orange, Schuyler county. May 3, i860, and 
is a son of William and Margaret (Totten) 
Macreery, both of whom were natives of 
County Tyrone, Ireland, whence they came 
to America, after which they were married 
m Schuyler county. New York. Of their 
family eight children reached years of ma- 
turity : R(jbert and Margaret, now de- 
cease<I : Mrs. Anna Cratsley. a resident of 
the town of Orange, Schuyler county; W^ill- 
iam T., who is living in the town of Di.x; 



John B., of this review; Mary, who became 
the wife of !.ee B. Webb and died leaving two 
children; Eliza, the wife of Charles Raplce, 
of the town of Di.x; an<l Henry, who com- 
jiletes the family. The father died Xovem- 
licr 11. 189S, ami the mother is still living, 
at the age of seventy years. 

John B. Macreery was reared on the 
home farm and attended the common schools 
of the neighborhood until tweKe years of 
age, when he began working by the month 
as a farm hand. After he attained his ma- 
jority he was married in the town of Dix, 
on the 5th of February, 1884, to Miss Anna 
C. Haney, who was born in Philadeli)hia, 
Pennsylvania, and is a daughter of James 
Harve}'. Her mother died when she was 
quite young and Mrs. Macreery then came to 
make her home in Schuyler county. New 
York. By her marriage she became the 
mother of two children : Bessie, who died 
in 1887, at the age of twelve years; and 
W. Frank, who was born in W.itkins, Oc- 
tober 28, 1890. 

For six years after his marriage Mr. 
^Macreery engaged in agricultural pursuits 
m the towns of Dix and Reading, and also 
carried on the baled hay and straw business 
as a side issue. In 1892 he removed to Wat- 
kins, still carrying on the hay and straw bus- 
iness on a more extensive scale. In Sep- 
tember. 1894, lie entered into partnership 
with Messrs. Lembeck and Mc.Vnarney in 
the hay, grain and straw business, under the 
firm name of Macreery. Lembeck & Com- 
I)any. but a year later Mr. Lemljeck died and 
the firm then became Macreery & Company, 
under which style business has since been 
conducted, and the sales of the firm now 
amount to about seventy-five thousand dol- 
lars annually. Under the capable direction 
of Mr. Macreery and his partner the business 



500 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



has prospered, growing to large proportions. 
Our subject is also a partner in the Watkins 
Coal Company and in the ownership of the 
business is also associated with Mr. }*IcAn- 
arney. In 1902 he purchased the old family 
homestead of one hundred and thirt\- acres 
in the town of Orange, of which he assumed 
control in 1894. 

Mr. Macreery voted for Grover Cleveland 
in i88j and always gives his support to the 
men and measures of the Democracy, but he 
lias never Ijeen an otiice seeker. Reared in 
the faith of the Presbyterian church, he holds 
membersiiip in the congregation at Sugar 
Hill. In 1892 lie was raised to the sublime 
degree of Master Mason in Jefferson Lodge, 
No. 332, F. & A. M., and is now a member 
of Watkins Chapter, Xo. 182, R. A. M., and 
St. Omer"s Comniandery, K. T., of Elmira. 
Tlie career of Mr. Macreery seems quite mar- 
\elous when we rememljer that willi little 
preparation in an educational way for his 
life work he began earning his living at the 
age of twelve years. Depending entirely 
upon his own resources and realizing that 
there is no royal road to wealth, he has b\' 
perseverance and unremitting industry ad- 
vanced to a prominent position among the 
successful men of Watkins. 



FRED S. EXXIS. 



For almost a quarter ot a century Fred 
S. Ennis has resided upon tlie f.nrm near 
Cayuta which is still his home. He was 
born on the 7th of Novemlser, 1853, in the 
town of Cayuta, where representatives of 
the family have long resided, his grandpar 
ents having located here in an early day. 
His father. Ira Fnni<. was born in Cavuta 



and after arriving at manhood he wedded 
Jane White, also a native of Cayuta. Their 
marriage was blessed with three children : 
Adelia, the wife of James M. \'an Dyke, an 
expressman in the employ of the United 
States Express Company; Fred S., of this 
review ; and Hattie S. 

Reared in the place of his nativity, Mr. 
Ennis is widely known here, and the fact that 
many with whom he has been acquainted 
from his boyhood are numbered among his 
slanchest friends is an indication that his 
career has been indeed honorable and worthy. 
The schools of Cayuta afforded him his edu- 
cational privileges, which he improved until ^ 
he entered upon his business career. On the 
1st of Februar)', 1877, he was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Alice .\. Boardman, who was 
born in Danby Decemlier 10. 1853. Her fa- 
tlier, August Boardman. was born in Danby 
December 13, 1827. and lier mother, who 
iKjre the maiden name of Lucinda McMillen. 
was born in Seneca county, Xew York, on 
the 3rd of May, 1834. By her marriage to 
Mr. Boardman she Ijecame the mother of six 
children, of whom the eldest, William Flai- 
ry, is now deceased. Carrie Belle, the sec- 
ond, is the wife of Charles Walleaver, who is 
proprietor of a hotel at Van Etten. They 
have three children: Harry, who is study- 
ing for the Methodist ministry. Beriiice and 
Mildred, who are still at home. Maria Lou- 
ise and Wilbur are the next of the Boardman 
family in order of birth. Samuel has also 
passed away. Bertha completes the family. 

At the time of ihcir marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Ennis took up their abode upon the 
farm which has now been their home for a 
C|uarter of a century, and with the passing 
years he has continued the work of its fur- 
ther development and imi)r<ivcmciit. From 
tiic time of early spring planting until the 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



501 



ciops are harvested in the hite aiitunm he is 
kept l)usy and his work is carried on in a sys- 
tematic, melhoihcal manner, which resuhs 
in I)ringing to iiim sjood crops. He also fol- 
lows the principles of rotating crops, and 
upon his farm he has made excellent improve- 
ments in the way of snhstantial hnildings. 
lie possesses good husiness ahility and his 
propertv has come t(j him as the merited re- 
ward of his labor. The farm comprises one 
hundred acres, two and one-half miles from 
C'aynta. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Ennis has 
been l^lessed with eight children, but they lost 
their first torn, Frankie. The others are: 
Jennie A.. 'JVacy Van Dyke, Frances M., 
]-red B.. ]\Iildrcd Belle. Ruth M. and Helen 
Adele. The family attend the services 
of the Baptist church, of which Mr. Ennis is 
a member, and to its support he contributes 
liberally of his time and means. His study 
of the political issues of the flay have led him 
to ally his strength with the Republican party 
and in endorsing its principles, which he l>e- 
lieves contains the best elements of good gov- 
crnmait. 



FRED CAREY. 



The man w ho starts out in life for him- 
self without capital or without the assistance 
of friends or influence and who depends en- 
tirely upon his own resources for a living, 
accomplishing much through industry and 
perseverance, certainly deserves great credit 
and is entitled to the esteem and considera- 
tion of his fellow men. Such has been the 
life history of Fred Carey, one of New York's 
native sons. Tic was born in the town of 
llorseheads, Chemung county, on the 9th of 
October. itS58, and at the early age of two 
years was left an orphan. He was then 



reareil in the family of Sydney Brcese, of 
Horseheads, who permitted him to attend the 
common schools and there he acquired the 
education which fitted him for the responsi- 
ble duties of a Inisiness career. At the age of 
eighteen years he left school and turned his 
attention to farming, in which he had re- 
ceived training under the direction of Mr. 
Breese. liis life has been one of earnest 
and indefatigable labor, and whatever he pos- 
sesses is the reward of his industry. He re- 
mained a resident of Chemung county until 
1900 and during all that period carried on 
agricultural pursuits. In the year men- 
tioned, however, he took up his abode in 
Montour F'alls and began gardening. In 
the new enterprise he has prospered and the 
products of his hothouse and garden beds 
find a ready sale upon the market because of 
size, quality and general excellence. 

Mr. Carey was united in marriage on Sep- 
tember 21, 1890. to Miss Susan Lariew, a 
daughter of AlmeiMon and Elizabeth (John- 
son) Lariew, who were residents of Elmira 
and in whose family were three children, two 
sons and a daughter, l-'red, the eldest son, 
now resides in Easton, New Jersey. He 
married Gertie Sliles and has one child. 
Cluirles, the other brother of Mrs. Carey, was 
a resident of Elmira, New York, where he 
v.as employed as a house painter until his 
death in 1893. The home of oiu" subject and 
his wife has been blessed with three children, 
Catherine. .Sydney and Ray. 

Strong purjiose has been one of the salient 
features in the success of Mr. Carey, who, in 
the control of his husiness affairs, has brooked 
no obstacle that could be overcome by per- 
sistent effort. His social qualities make him 
popular with man\- friends and as one of the 
representative men of Montour Falls he is 
now numbered. 



S02 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



GARRET HARIXG. 

Wlien tlie tocsin uf war sounded and men 
from all parts of the country flocked to the 
standard of the Union the Emjiire state sent 
her full quota of men to the hattlefields of 
the south and maintained a reputation for 
loyalty and ])atriotism second to no state of 
the country. Mr. Haring was among her 
sons who followed the starry banner into the 
camp of the enemy and stood stalwart in de- 
fense of the right of the national government 
to control the states forming the Union. He 
returned home with a most creditable mili- 
tary record, for in tiie thickest of the fight he 
stood by his colors with strong and loyal pur- 
pose. 

A nati\e son of Schuyler coimty, he was 
born in the town of Orange, June 28. 1838, 
a son of Cornelius and Mary (Johnson) Har- 
ing. His father was Ixirn September 14. 
1805. and was three times married. He first 
wedded Aclisali Johnson and they had three 
children : I'hebie. Elizabeth and Wealthy. 
The wife and mother died and Mr. Haring 
afterward weilded Mary Johnson. They be- 
came residents of the town of Orange and 
their home was blessed with seven children : 
Martlia, r,arret, Charlotte. William, Helen. 
Lillian and Mice. .After losing his .second 
wife Cornelius Haring married Freelovc 
Townsend, but there were no children by this 
union. 

Having acquired his education in the pub- 
lic schools Garret Haring started out upon his 
business career at the age of twenty years and 
followed farming from 1858 until 1862, when 
he donned the blue uniform of the nation as 
a defender of the Union cause, becoming a 
member of Company A, One Hundred and 
Forty-first Regiment of New York Volun- 
teers, with which he went to the front, serv- 



ing until the 23d of June, 1865, when by 
reason of the cessation of hostilities and the 
surrender of southern trocips lie was mus- 
tered out of the service. For fifteen days he 
was in the hospital at W'hite House Landing 
and then rejoined his regiment, participating 
in many very important engagements, in- 
cluding the battles of Chattan<ioga. Lookout 
Mountain, Mission Ritlge, Resaca, Gulp's 
farm, Dallas and Peach Tree Creek, where 
tiie regiment lost fifty-six per cent, of its men 
in killed and wounded. Later Mr. Haring 
]iarticipated in tiie siege of Atlanta and from 
there went with General Sherman on the 
march to the sea. He was also in the engage- 
ments at Erie. Chester and Bentonville and 
spent four weeks at Savannah, after which he 
crossed the ri\er in South Carolina. He was 
in the battle of Goldsboro, one of the last en- 
gagements of the war, and at Raleigh. Leav- 
ing that place the army had proceeded but a 
short distance when the news of General Lee's 
surrender was received and the regiment to 
which Mr. Haring belonged then went direct 
to \Vashington, where it was mustered out, 
and our subject returned to his home — one 
of the honored veterans of the Civil war. 

Mr. Haring was united in marriage to 
Miss Mar)' Morris, a daughter of Burlock 
and Sarah (Mattison) Morris, whose chil- 
dren were as follows : Egliert, Daniel and 
Esther, all deceased : Jane, the wife of Henry 
Stoddart, a farmer residing in Michigan ; 
I'rancis, deceased; Mary, the esteemed wife 
of our subject; and Eugene, who has also 
passed away. For twelve years after his mar- 
riage Mr. Haring made his home in Town- 
send and then came to his present place 
of residence, purchasing his fann near 
Monterey, in Orange township, where he 
is yet living. His efforts and manage- 
ment ha\e wrought a great transforma- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



503 



tion in the place, as the lands ha\e liecii 
brought iimler a very high state oi cul- 
tivation and equijiped with excellent buildings 
and all modern improvements found upon the 
best farms of the twentieth century. Loyal 
in citizenship, enterprising and progressive in 
business, and reliable in all life's relations, 
Mr. Haring certainly deserves mention 
among the Lest residents of Schuyler county. 



ARTHUR CARLETOX WOODWARD. 

X'o man is more highly resi)ected in 
Schuyler county or more deserves the esteem 
and good will of his fellow men than does 
Arthur Carleton Woodward, who has long 
served in positions of public trust and is a 
leading business man of Watkins. Faultless 
in honor, fearless in conduct and stainless in 
reputation, he has ever commanded the re- 
spect of those with whom he has come in con- 
tact by reason of his public-spirited devotion 
to the general good, his loyalty in ofifice and 
his faithfulness in friendship. 

Mr. Woodward was born in the town of 
Hector, which then formed a part of Tomp- 
kins county but is now a part of Schuyler 
county, his natal day being October 10, i<S47. 
He is of English descent and traces his an- 
cestrj' back to Major Benjamin Woodward, 
a country gaitleman of Chestershire, Eng- 
land, who in 1650 raised a regiment for serv- 
ice in Cromwell's army and passed into Ire- 
land, where, after the war. he received a con- 
siderable grant of land as a reward for his 
services, a portion of which still l)elongs to 
the family estates and is known as the de- 
mesne of Drumborrow, County West Meath. 
Eenjrmiin Woodward, a son of the Major, 
married Judith, sister of Sir John Meredith, 

29 



and to ihem were born three children, the 
second of whom was Benjamin, the great- 
grandfather of our subject. He became a 
wholesale merchant of Dublin and married 
Elizabeth (Irant. a niece of the Right Hon. 
Thomas Wait, then secretary of state in Dub- 
lin. The latter part of her school days were 
sjient imder the tutelage of Hannah More. 
She was a lady of superior education, great 
piety and a devoted member of the church 
of England, and a few years later she came 
to America with several of her sons and their 
families, settling in Tompkins county. New 
York. She and her sons, JoJm ami Hcnrv 
\\'oodwar(l, located at Peach Orchard in the 
town of Hector (now a part of Schuyler 
county K and there she organized an Episco- 
pal church, known as Trinity chapel, which 
she supported with her own means as long as 
she li\ed. 'J'he liuilding is still standing but 
is now used as a barn. .She died at the home 
of her grandson, John Woodward, in April, 
1848, at the age of eighty-six years. John 
^\'oodward, Sr., the grandfather of our 
subject, was educated for a physician but 
after his marriage lie jiassed some years 
upon a farm and subsequently became a 
merchant in Louflon, England, whence he 
came to .\merica in April, 1823. He 
marricil Sarah \'cnn, a daughter of John 
\'enn, a gentleman of Devonshire, England, 
whose ancestPt^ can be traced back many gen- 
erations, five generations of the Venn family 
having occupied the same house during a 
period of over two hundred and fifty years, 
and as f.nr as know n llie estates are still in the 
family. 

John Woodwanl, Jr., our subject's fa- 
ther, was lx)rn near London, England, in 
!8i3. and during his youth acconi]vanied his 
parents on their removal to the United States, 
locating on a farm in the town of Hector, 



504 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Schuyler cuunty, Xew York. Tliere he was 
reared to manhood and in the district schools 
of the neighborhood he pursued his educa- 
tion. He died at the age of fifty-two years 
and his father passed awaj- at the age of sixty- 
six years. His wife, who bore the maiden 
name of Mary Peck, was born in the town of 
Hector and was a daughter of Joel Peck, an 
early settler of Schuyler county. After their 
marriage they took up their alx)de on the old 
home place and throughout his remaining 
years the father carried on agricultural pur- 
suits. He was first a W'liig and afterward a 
Republican in his jiolitical affiliations and he 
served as supervisor of the town of Hector 
for two terms. Having commanded a com- 
pany of militia in an early da}- he was uni- 
formly known by the title of Captain Wood- 
vvard and was a man respected l)y all who 
knew him, his life being in harmony with his 
professions as a member of the Episcopal 
church. 

Unto him and his wife was born a large 
family: John H., the eldest, is a prominent 
attorney of Portland, Oregon, and served for 
one terrn as judge of Multnomah county, that 
state. Benjamin ^^'., who died in July, 1902, 
was also a lawyer by profession and when 
twenty-eight years of age was elected county 
judge of Schuyler county. Subsequently he 
removed to Brooklyn. Xew York, where he 
made his home until his death, although he 
passed away in Hector and was laid to rest 
in Glenwood cemetery, of A\'atkins. Har- 
riet A. is a practicing physician of Albany. 
New York. Charles M., who engaged in the 
]>ractice of medicine in Tecuniseh, Michigan, 
died about the year 1897. .\rthur C. is the 
next of the family. Mary L. is the wife of 
Oliver H. Budd, of Hector, who has served 
for two terms as a member of the general 
assembly of New York and is a distinguished 



citizen of this portion of the state. Two of 
the brothers, John H. and Charles M., en- 
tered the Union army during the Civil war 
as members of Company I. Twenty-third 
New York \'olunteer Infantry. After three 
months John was promoted to the rank of 
captain and placed on the staff of the com- 
manding general. He was afterward com- 
missioned major. He served throughout 
the war and had charge of the beef cattle de- 
partment of the Potomac. Charles was pro- 
moted to commissary sergeant and also re- 
mained with the army until after the cessa- 
tion of hostilities. Benjamin W. was a stu- 
dent in Hobart College, Geneva, New York, 
when the war was inaugurated and there re- 
mained until after his graduation in June. 
He was then made a clerk under his brother 
John and thus all three were together 
throughout the war. When our subject was 
about fifteen years of age he, too, joined his 
brothers in the south and served for a few 
months as a messenger boy, being in the 
enemy's country at the time of the second 
battle of Fredericksburg. 

Arthur C. \Voodward was reared to man- 
hood on the home farm, and, having acquired 
a common-school education, he obtained a 
teacher's certificate which is still in his pos- 
session. He was only ciglUeen years old at 
the time of his father's death but he continued 
to work upon the home farm until he reached 
the age of twenty-three years, at which time 
lie was married, November 23, 1870. in the 
town of Hector, to Miss Emma Everts, who 
was born in that town and was a daughter of 
Alfred antl Emeline (Warner) Everts. By 
this marriage two children were bom: Al- 
fred C. and James H. The former married 
Marian Baldwin and they have one child, 
William C, who was born Scptemlier 17. 
1899. After the death of his first wife Mr. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



505 



Woodward wedded her sister. There were 
no children by that union. For his tliird wife 
he married i\liss Laura Cioss, who was born 
in \'ernon, Michigan, a daugliter of George 
W. and Chloc (Hovey) Goss, and by this 
marriage there was one son, Arthur Weston, 
born July 31, 1891. Mrs. Laura Woodward 
died January 22. 1S95, and our subject af- 
terward married Klla M. Reynolds, a daugh- 
ter of William H. ami Martha M. Reynolds. 
She was born and reared on a farm adjoin- 
ing that of her htisljand and only lived about 
four years after her marriage. Later Mr. 
Woodworth married Mrs. IMarion Bowers 
Everts, a daughter of Seneca D. Bowers, of 
1'roy, New York, and an own cousin of W. 
H. \\'a!t, deceased. She was the widow of 
J. A. Everts, a brother of the first two wives 
of our subject. They now ha\e a pleasant 
home at the corner of Eighth and I'^ranklin 
streets, Watkins. 

Mr. W^oodward is a recognized leader in 
the ranks of the Republican party in Schuy- 
ler county, prominent and influential, his 
opinions carrj'ing weight in the councils of 
the organization, and in igoi he was chair- 
man of the county committee. He cast his 
first presidential ballot for General Grant in 
1868 and has since voted at every general 
election. In the same year he was appointed 
deputy county clerk, serving for one winter, 
and in the succeeding spring he returned to 
the tarm, where he remained until 1873, 
when he was again appointed deputy county 
clerk and acted in that capacity for two 
terms. In November, 1873, he removed to 
Watkins, where he has since lived, and in the 
fall of 1878 he was elected county clerk by 
the unprecedented majority of sixteen hun- 
dred and sevent\--nine. For five successive 
terms he was chosen to that position and in 
1887 he was elected wit'iout opposition. 



being endorsed by both parties. His politi- 
cal record is certainly a creditable one and 
indicates the confidence and trust reposed in 
liim as well as his fidelity to the duties which 
have tlevohed upon him. For one term he 
served as trustee and president of the village 
of Watkins. In 1897 he purchased an in- 
terest in a liardw are store with which he has 
since been identified under the firm name of 
Banks & \Voodward, a son managing his in- 
terest in the business. Mr. Woodward owns 
seventy-fi\e acres of land in the town of Dix, 
which he purchased in 1893, and finds in his 
agricultural pursuits recreation from the ar- 
duous duties of his business and official life. 
Such in brief is the life history of Arthur C. 
Woodward. In whatever relation we find, 
him, in the government service, in political 
circles, in business or in social life he is al- 
ways the same honorable and honored gen- 
tleman whose worth well merits the high re- 
gard which is uniformly given him. 



TRACY M. MAIN. 



One of the substantial citizens and lead- 
ing agriculturists of Schuyler county is 
Tracy M. Main, whose real estate holdings 
are extensive and valuable. He is numbered 
among the native sons of the Empire state, 
his birth having occurred in the town of 
Brookfield, Madison county, on the 14th of 
May, 1834. At the usual age he entered the 
public schools, there pursuing a course of 
study which well fitted him for the practical 
duties of life. He left school at the age ot 
nineteen years and entered upon his business 
career as a carpenter and joiner, learning 
that trade which he has followed to a consid- 
erable extent throughout the greater part of 



5o6 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



his business career. Since becoming a resi- 
dent of Schuyler county he has erected many 
residences in this part of the state, taking 
large contracts whicli have closely associ- 
ated him with building interests. He has 
always lived up faithfully to the terms of a 
contract and has thus secured a liberal patron- 
age. Thoroughly understanding the trade, 
he has been enal>Ied to carefully direct the 
labors of those who have worked under him, 
and thus the houses which he has erected have 
given marked satisfaction to their owners. 
As his financial resources have increased Mr. 
Main has made judicious investments in real 
estate and is to-day the owner of two large 
and \aluable farms which he rents and 
which thereby return to him a good income. 

In 1858 Mr. Main was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Harriet N. Boskin. a native of 
Steuben county, now Schuyler county, her 
birth having occurred on the i8th of April, 
] 832. Their union has been blessed with one 
child, Charles 'SI. Main, who was born on the 
27th of December, 1858, in the town of Dix 
and who now follows farming here. He 
wedded Delphine Beebe and resides in the 
town of Orange, Schuyler county. They 
have four interesting children : Goldie, 
Frank B., IMay and Luella Belle, all at school 
and still under the parental roof. 

In his political views Mr. Main is a Re- 
publican and keeps well infomied on the is- 
sues and questions of the ckiy, so that h.e is 
enabled to snpjjort his position by intelligent 
argument. In religious faith he is a Meth- 
odist, having long held membership in the 
church. He is a most genial man to meet 
and is a fine illustration of a self-made man. 
so that his career should serve as a lesson to 
the young. He started out to make his o\\ n 
way in the world and his success proves most 
forcibly the power of patient, persistent ef- 



fort and self-reliance. He has so conducted 
all affairs, \\ hether of private interests or of 
public trust, as to merit the esteem of all 
classes of citizens and no word of reproach is 
e\er uttered against him. As a man and 
citizen he enjoys the adiled prosperity which 
comes to those genial spirits who ha\e a 
hearty handshake for all those with whom 
they come in contact from day to day and 
who in consequence seem to throw around 
tiiem so much of the sunshine of life. 



VIRGIL REDXER. 



Among the soldiers that Schuyler county 
sent to the Ci\il war is numbered Virgil Red- 
ner. and in all matters of citizenship, in days 
of peace as well as in days of hostility, he has 
ever been found lo\'al to the welfare of his 
country and her best interests. He was born 
in the town of Hector, Schuyler county, Feb- 
ruary 2, 1839, and is a son of Alexander 
Redner, whose birth occurred in Orange 
county. New York, February 4, 1793. The 
father accjuired a common-school education 
and was a farmer by occupation, following 
that i)ursuit throughout his entire business 
career. Al3out 1825 he removed to Tompkins 
county, settling in Newfield, where he se- 
cured a tract of land, and then engaged in its 
further culti\ation and improvement. He 
was unitcil in marriage to Miss Catherine 
Miller, and they became the parents of twelve 
children: Fannie, bom January 28, 1817; 
Catherine, born July 10, 1819; Philemon, 
born September 9, 1821 ; George, born Janu- 
ary 30, 1823; William, bom May 9, 1825; 
Herman, born October 29, 1828: Abner, 
born August 5, 1830; Roxana. born January 
3, 1832; Margaret, torn March 8, 1834; 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



507 



Susan, horn August 19. 1835; Virgil. l)orn 
I-el)ruary J, 1839; and '[ohn, horn August 7, 
1841. In his pohtical views tlie tatiier of 
this family was a Repuijlican. and in Chris- 
tian faith was a Methodist, holding memher- 
ship with that church for many years. 

\'irgil Redncr. whose name introduces 
this record, ohtainetl a common-school edu- 
cation and at the age of seventeen left the 
schoolroom in order to devote his entire time 
to farm work. He followed that pursuit 
continuously until 1S60. when he made his 
way to the lumber woods and was there em- 
ployed through the four succeeding years. 
In 1864. however, he put aside personal con- 
siderations that he might aid his countrj' in 
die conscientious struggle to preserve the 
Union. lie joined the army under the com- 
mand of Captain H. W. Sanford, being as- 
signed to Company G of the Second New 
York Veteran Cavalry. He participated in 
llie battle of Fort Blakely. Alabama, his com- 
pany opening fire at that engagement. For 
a year he remained at the front and was then 
discharged at Talladega, Alabama. Septem- 
ber 24. 1865. His military service was a 
creditable one. for he was always found at 
his post of duty, never faltering in the dis- 
charge of any task assigned him. .\t the 
close of his military life he returned to the 
north, locating in Emporium. Pennsylvania, 
Again he went into tiie lumber woods, where 
he was employed until 187J. In that year he 
removed tr) Ohio, where he resided until 
1882. work-ng at the carpenter's trade 
throughout that period. He ne.xt located in 
Decatur, where he remained until 1883, and 
then went to Tioga couiUy. Pennsylvania, 
where he remained for eight years. About 
1890 he took up his abode in Harrison Val- 
ley, where he was em])loyed until 1S93. In 
that vear he went to li\c with his brother. 



Mr. Reilner was united in marriage to 
Miss Ida Miles, who was boni in 1858, a 
daughter of hiank and Amanda Miles, resi- 
dents of Illinois, in which state they were 
married. Mr. Redner is now following 
farming in the town of Catharine. Schuyler 
county. Cndcr his careful management this 
farm has been made to i)roduce good results, 
the fields yielding large crops, wherelw his 
income is annually increased. In politics he 
is a Republican, who keeps well informed on 
the issues of the day. True to the religious 
faith in which he was reared, he is now iden- 
tified with the Methodist church. 



SEELY R. GANUNG. 

Seely R. Ganung is one of the oldest na- 
tive residents of Schuyler county. There is 
no more substantial proof of the attractive- 
ness of the county as a j^lace of residence than 
the fact that so luany of her native sons have 
remained here to enjoy the business oppor- 
tunities here afforded and that through the 
exercise of their labor and energies they have 
gained merited and enxiable success. Mr. 
Ganung is a representative of this class. 

He was born in the town of Di.x. July 25, 
1832. a son of Edward and Melinda (Rob- 
inson) Ganung. the f<irmer born in the town 
of Hector, February 29. 1807, while the 
mother's birth occurred probably in Orange 
county. New York. They became the par- 
ents of eight children : Elias. who resides in 
Dix and owns and o])erates a small farm; 
Seelv R.. of this review; .Mmira M.. now de- 
ceased; Lydia Ann. the wife of Nathaniel 
Chapman, by whom she has one child. Ma- 
rimla. who married Myron Shrinoe and lives 
in Montour township: Alexander V.. who 



5o8 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



married Carrie Tilford, by whom he has 
three children, and Hves at Corning, New 
York; Sarah B., who is Hving witli her sis- 
ter Mrs. Cliapman; Edna, who has passed 
away; and Scott, who married Helen I\I. 
Chapman and makes his home in Penn Yan. 

For the educational privileges which he 
enjoyed Seely R. Ganung is indebted to the 
public schools of Schuyler county, which he 
attended until sixteen years of age, when he 
began earning his own livelihood by hauling 
wood to W'atkins. He practiced both in- 
dustry and economy and when his labors had 
lirought to him sufficient capital he purchased 
a tract of land, on which he has since en- 
gaged in general fanning and gardening. 
The care and labor which he bestows upon 
his place enables him to secure good crops of 
grain and vegetables and both find a ready 
sale on the market, bringing to him a good 
financial return. His industry and capable 
management ha\e been the foundation upon 
which he has builded his success. 

On the 13th of June, 1856, Air. Ganung 
v^as united in marriage to Miss Mar}^ Crout, 
and unto them has Ijeen torn one son, Arthur 
F. Her father, Edwin P. Crout, was born in 
New ler.sey. April 12, 1812, and when only 
fi)ur nicinths old was brought by his parents 
to Schuyler county, the family becoming 
early settlers here. In 1836 he married Eliza- 
beth Vandine, and to them were born four 
children, Anna Elizabeth, Minerva, Cath- 
erine and Washington. For his second wife 
Mr. Crout married Mrs. Malissa (Straight) 
Mills, by whom he had si.x children, Sarah, 
Frank, Homer, George, \\'illie and Susan. 
The last two are deceased. 

Mr. and Mrs. Ganung have long been 
riuml)ered among the worthy farming people 
of Schuyler county and l)oth are representa- 
tives of [jrominent pioneer families here who 



aided in the work of early development and 
improvement as the county emerged from 
the wilderness to take its place among the 
leading agricultural districts of the great Em- 
jiire state. Mr. Ganung belongs to the First 
Christian church of Dix and he votes with 
the Republican party, the principles of which 
lie has long endorsed. Having spent his en- 
tn^e life in this county, few men are better 
known here than is Mr. Ganung, and as a 
representative citizen of the community we 
present with pleasure to our readers the his- 
tor\- of his life. 



LEWIS F. BESS. 



Lewis F. Bess, who is engaged in shoe- 
making in Mecklenburg, is one of the native 
sons of the Empire state, his birth having 
occurred in the town of Ulysses, Tompkins 
county, on the 30th of March, 1830. Fle is 
a son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Blackman) 
Bess. His father was a native of New Jer- 
sey and on coming to New Y^ork settled in 
Tompkins county, where he met and married 
Miss Blackni.in, whose birth had occurred in 
the town of Hector. They had but two chil- 
dren : Erastus and Lewis F. 

The latter spent his boyhood days in his 
parents' home, obtained a common-school 
education and afterwartl learned the shoe- 
maker's trade of Almon Wakeman in the vil- 
lage of Covert, Seneca county. Throughout 
his business career he has carried on work 
along that line and he has a good trade, for 
his work gives satisfaction, his prices arc 
reasonable and his business methods are hon- 
orable. 

On the 20th of September, 1853, Mr. 
Bess was united in marriage to Miss Eliza- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



509 



betli J. Young, a daughter of John Young, 
who removed from Long Island to Orange 
county, New York, in early life. Mr. and 
^Ir.s. Bess began their domestic life in Farmer 
\"i!lage, New York. Our subject there es- 
tablished a shoe-shop, which he successfully 
conducted until the 20th of September, 1864, 
when, feeling tiiat his first duty was to his 
country, he joined the Laiion army under the 
command of Captain Marsh, becoming a 
member of Company K, First Regiment of 
Xew York Veteran Cavalry. He served un- 
til the close of the war and on the 6th of 
July, 1865, received an honorable discharge, 
after which he returned to his home. 

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bess has 
been blessed witli four children : Thomas 
I-L, who was bom May 22, 1855; Elizaljeth, 
born November 18, 1858; Mortimer, who 
was born .March 30, 1862. and is now de- 
ceased ; and Sarali, who was born .\ugust 13, 
i866. Of this family Thomas H. is now a 
resident of Allegany county, New York. 
The daughter is the wife of Lyman Palmer, 
a carpenter and joiner, residing in Mecklen- 
burg. Elizabethi became the wife of Thomas 
Fitzpatrick and they reside in Montour Falls, 
where Mr. Fitzpatrick follows the mason's 
trade. 



HERMAN L. REDNER. 

Herman I-. Refiner is a native of Schuy- 
ler county, his l)irth having here occurred Oc- 
tober K), i8j<S. He has passed the Psalm- 
ist's allotted span of three score years and 
ten, and is now one of the honored and ven- 
erable citizens of the town of Catharine, 
where for many years he has devoted his at- 
tention to agricultural pursuits. In the com- 
mon school he obtained his education, but put 



aside his text books at the age of sixteen in 
order to devote his time and attention to 
agricultural pursuits, which he followed con- 
tinuously until the 8th of July, 1863. On 
that day he offered his services to the gov- 
ernment, enlisting as n mcmiier of Company 
E, One Humlred and Fcjrty-seventh Regi- 
ment of New York Volunteers, the command 
being raised in Brooklyn. New York. He 
served for two years, iluring which time he 
participated in the Ixittlc of the Wilderness 
and of Culpcper. In the former he was 
taken prisoner and sent to Andersonville, 
V, here he remained for five months. He was 
then transferred to South Carolina, where 
lie continued for four months, after which he 
was ordered to Wilmington. He was also 
for three weeks in the Rebel prison at Golds- 
boro, North Carolina, after which he was re- 
turned to W^ilmington, where he was paroled. 
Later he was sent to Washington and from 
there he was ordered to the hospital in Balti- 
more because his health had been largely un- 
dermined by the hardships of prison life. He 
spent eight weeks in the hospital, after which 
he returned home b\' way of New York city, 
on a thirty-days' furknigh. When his leave 
of absence had expired he was still unable to 
rejoin his regin-ent and his time was ex- 
terided for thirty days longer. Before that 
period had elapsed he was directed to go to 
Klnu'ra and obtain his discharge, which he 
did on the 2d of .\ugust, 1866. 

After the war Mr. Redner went to Cay- 
ma. and was united in marriage to Miss 
Loraine Bement, wiio was born in the town 
of Hector, ^May 19, 1S41, a daughter of Eli 
Bement. who was also born in the town of 
Hector, and who married Marian Stephen- 
son. Their fann'Iy numbered four children: 
Gilbert, now deceased; Eliza Jane, the wife 
of Erastus Bush, a resident df r.cnnettsburg. 



5IO 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



New ^'ork ; Jackson, who has also passed 
sway: and Loraine. the wife of our subject. 
At the time of his marriage Mr. Redner 
purchased a farm in Cayuta township, com- 
prising sixty acres, and has since devoted his 
efforts continuously to agricultural pursuits 
with the result that his well tilled fields have 
brought to him a profitable return and a 
comfortable living as a reward for his labors. 
In his political \ iews he is a Republican and 
in religious faith is a Methodist. 



GEORGE \V. HECKMAN. 

George W. Heckman owns and operates 
a farm of ninety-five acres at Sugar Hill in 
the town of Orange, Schuyler county. He 
was Ixirn on the 15th of April, 1855. in the 
town of Thurston, Steuben county. New 
York, one of the nine children of Robert and 
Elizabeth (Deck) Heckman, both natives of 
the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. They 
had a family of nine children : Maria ; 
Margaret, deceased: I.al-'ayctle; Amanda: 
George; Catherine; Charley: John; and An- 
drew, who is also deceased. 

The childhood days of our subject were 
si)ent in his parents' home, and at the age of 
fiileen he put aside the text books which he 
had studied in the conunon schools, in order 
to devote his entire attention to farm work, 
with which he had been familiar from early 
life, ha\ing assisted in the development and 
cultivation of the home farm. When he at- 
tained his majority he started out in life on 
his own account and as a companion and 
helpmate for life's journey he chose Miss 
Mora E. Bailey, their marriage l^ing cele- 
brated in 1880. .She is a native of Orange 
county, born on the i ith of May, i860. Her 
father, Jehiel Bailev, was l)orn in the town 



of Enfield, Tompkins county. New York, 
November 4, 1818, and devoted his life to 
the ministry as a preacher of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. He was a man of much 
intbience and did great good in the world. 
He wedded Barentha Buck and their three 
chiklren were: I'lora, the wife of our sub- 
ject; Lemira S., the wife of John G. New- 
kirk, a resident of ilinneapolis, Minnesota ; 
and .\sa M., of Orange, New York. 

.At the time of their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Heckman located in the town of Thurs- 
ton, Steuben county, upon a farm which he 
operated for four years. He then removed 
to Painted Post. New York, and after two 
years went to Campbell, Steuben county, 
which continued to be his place of residence 
imtil his removal to Pennsylvania three years 
later. He settled at IMount Alton. McKean 
county, where he lived for four years, and 
then came to the tov.n of Orange. Schuyler 
county, settling at Sugar Hill, where he pur- 
chased ninety-five acres of land, constituting 
his present fine farm, whereon he has made 
excellent impro\ements that indicate to the 
passer-by the practical and progressive spirit 
of the owner. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Heckman has 
been blessed with three children ; Mina 
Edith, bom .\pril 2. 1883; Margaret Irene, 
born July 8, 1885 ; and Clarence Bailey, born 
February 22. 1892, all yet under the parental 
roof. The family is one of prominence and 
worth in the community and the parents 
have a \ery large circle of friends in this 
locality. In his political affiliations Mr. 
Heckman is a Repul)iican. firm and true, and 
his churc'i iiiembership connects him with the 
Methodist denomination. His acfpiaintances 
know him to be a man of upright |)rinciple. 
of sterling \\-orth and uncpiestiontd ])robity 
and he well deserves mention in this volume. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



5" 



GEORGE C. LOCKWOOD. 

George C. Lockwood has reached the 
seventy-fifth milestone on life's journey and 
for fort)' years iie has lived upon the farm 
which is yet his home. Few men in Schuyler 
county have a wider acquaintance or are held 
in higher esteem than this worthy, upright 
man. and it is with pleasure, therefore, that 
we present tlie history of his career to our 
readers, knowing that it will he gladly re- 
ceived by many. Mr. Lockwood was bom 
in the town of Dix on the 4th of May, 1827, 
and is a representative of one of the old fami- 
lies of Schuyler county, his ancestors having 
located here at an early day. He has wit- 
nessed much of the growth and development 
of this portion of the state, has sfen its wild 
lands reclaimed for purposes of civilization 
and transformed into productive farms, has 
witnessed the growth of hamlet and town 
and the introduction of all modern methods 
of agriculture and of commerce. In his 
youth he worked in the fields of his home 
jilace and gained practical knowledge of the 
occupation which he has made his life work. 

In the year 1841 Mr. Lockwood was 
united in marriage to Miss Xancy Le Fevre. 
who was born in 1823 in the town of Dix, on 
n hill just opposite that on which her luis- 
band was born and reared, only the valley 
separating their two homes. Their marriage 
has lieen blessed with a family of five chil- 
dren. Stella, the eldest, is now the wife of 
Charles B. Rich, a resident of Townsend. 
where he is working as a laborer. They have 
seven children. Alice. .Mfred, Arthur, 
George, Carrie, Lena and Harry. Etta, the 
second member of the Lockwood family, is 
the wife of Orrin .Andrews, who is engaged 
in ])ainting and in other kinds of work in 
Townsend. Thcv have three children. Rav, 



-Nina and Daisy. Jennie is the next memljer 
of the fam.ily. Lyman is a veterinary sur- 
geon residing in Pcnn Van, Yates county, 
Xew York, and because of his capability has 
become a very prosperous member of his pro- 
fession in tliat place. Fle wedded Maria 
Swartout, and they had three children. 
George, Earl, and Leon, deceased. Ida, the 
youngest member of the Lockwood family, 
is now the wife of Clarence Mapes, a farmer 
residing in Townsend, and they have three 
ciiildrcn. May, Edith and an infant. 

At the time of his marriage Mr. Lock- 
wood began his domestic life in a house 
standing at the foot of the hill. He worked 
at the carpenter's trade by the (lay and by 
practicing industry and economy he found 
that in the course of six years he had saved 
twelve inip.dred dollars. He made judicious 
investments of this sum. Going about a half 
mile up the hill he purchased a nice farm, and 
upon this has since li\cd. transforming it 
into a very valuable property, which he has 
placed under a very high state of cultivation. 
He cleared nearly all of his land ami ])er- 
formed other arduous tasks connected with 
the de\elo])ment of the new place, and in the 
course of time, as the result of his industrv 
;ind cntcr[)rise, the fields yielded to him a 
good return. He also added many sul)stan- 
lial improvements to his farm, so that it is 
now a well ef|uipped place. Here he has 
lived for forty years, continuously carrj'ing 
on agricultural work. When his youngest 
child was only se\en months old he bade 
adieu to his wife and four children and joined 
the aniiy as a defender of the Union cause, 
serving in a number of ini])ortant battles. At 
length, when his term of service was over, 
he returned to his home and resumed his 
farm work. In politics he is a Democrat, 
having long voted with the party. Mr. 



512 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



Lockwood is one of the oldest native citi- 
zens of Schuyler county and his memory 
forms a connecting link between the primi- 
tive past and the progressive present. He 
has witnessed indeed many wonderful 
changes as the county has kept pace with uni- 
versal progress. He has seen the building 
of railroads, the introduction of the tele- 
graph and telephone and has kept in touch 
with inipn)\-ed farming methods which have 
made the labors of the agriculturist much 
more effective to-day than it was a half cent- 
ury ago. 



JAMES li. STOUGHTON. 

An eventful life has been that of J. H. 
Sloughton, for he was connected w-ith early 
mining experiences in California, braved 
danger and death upon the fields of battle in 
the south and has had many hardships and 
difficulties to encounter in his career. He 
was the eldest of the seventeen children of 
Andrew Stoughton, a native of Hackets- 
town, New Jersey. His mother bore the 
maiden name of Peggy Wiggins. About 
1798 .-\ndre\v Stoughton came to Schuyler 
county, New York, then a part of Tompkins 
county, and located in what is now the town 
of Hector, journeying westward with the 
Wiggins family. From that time until his 
death he made bis home in this locality and 
was a prominent and inlluential citizen in the 
early days. l*'or a number of years lie served 
as town clerk, was also county commissioner 
and was tendered the position of county 
school comiuissioner but did not accept it. 
His death occurred in the year 1866. 

James Hoglen Stoughton, whose name 
introduces tliis review, was liorn in the town 
of Hector, near Reynoldsvillc, September 5. 



1830, and was educated in the early tax 
school, which he attended until eighteen years 
of age. He then left school and at the age 
of twenty went to Union Springs, New 
York, where he worked at the carpenter's 
trade for a time. In 1851 he made his way 
to New \'ork city, attracted by the discovery 
o.f gold in California, and at the eastern 
metropolis he took passage on the Chesa- 
peake, a steamer of the Vanderbilt line, for 
California. Thus he proceeded to Havana, 
Cuba, where, leaving the first boat, he em- 
l)arked on ihe Falcon. There the ships were 
coaled by nati^-es, and from that place Mr. 
Stoughton proceeded to Shagers, on the 
Isthmus of Panama. He was seven days 
crossing the isthmus, for his means were lim- 
ited and he walked the entire distance. He 
wore out a new pair of fine boots on the jour- 
ney and felt foot sore and weary after en- 
countering many hardships. Finally, how- 
ever, he reached the city of Panama, and two 
days later he sailed on the steamer North- 
erner, which proceeded direct to Bogota, 
taking on water about twelve miles from that 
place. They next landed at Acapulco, and 
the first place where they saw the American 
flag was at Monterey. He did not go ashore 
there, however, and soon the boat proceeded 
to San Francisco, California. There he did 
prospecting and also worked in the mines the 
most of the time for seven years, spending 
the greater part of that period at a place 
called Volcano, in Amador county. He was 
in Sac'amento for some months and later re- 
turned liome by the same route which he had 
traveled in going to the far west. In the 
meantime, however, a railroad had been built 
across the isthmus, so that he did not again 
have to w aik. Tlie return trip consumed seven 
weeks, and he again came to Schuyler county, 
where he worked at the wagon-maker's trade 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



513 



tlirou^^h the succeetling winter in tlie employ 
of others. He then purchased a shop and 
engaged in wagon-making on his own ac- 
count for about two years. 

On the 24th of January, 1862, Mr. 
Slougliton enhsted in tlie army, becoming a 
member of Company I, One Hundred and 
Tliird Xew York Volunteer Infantry, under 
the command of Captain William M. Crosby. 
Mr. Stoughton was made corporal of his 
company and was detailed as nurse in a hos- 
pital at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, in 
July, 1862. He was badly wounded in the 
left thigh in an action on James Island, 
South Carolina, May 22, i8(')4, and was dis- 
charged on the 17th of March, 1865, at New- 
York city, being there mustered out. His 
regiment participated in the battles of Dutch 
Gap, Jameo Island, Fort Mason, Houghton 
Mills, South Mountain, I'redericksburg. 
Suffolk, the bombardment of Fort Sumter 
and others, including the fall of Petersburg. 
Mr. Stoughton personally served in the first 
two battles and was with.in gun shot most of 
the time, although he was largely engaged in 
picket duty. 

After returning to his native county Mr. 
Stoughton took up the business of wagon- 
making, wliich he followed for two years. 
He then traded the property for a farm, upon 
which he lived for nine years, and then again 
located in Reynoldsville. where 1/e has since 
resided. 

On the 5th of March. 1870, Mr. Stough- 
ton was married to Lucy Jane, a daughter of 
Milton and Martha (Henry) Smith, of Hec- 
tor, New York, and a granddaughter of 
Judge Caleb Smith, of Gene\a, this state. 
Three cliildren have been born unto them. 
Martha is now the wife of Edwin Searles 
and resides alx)ut two miles south of Ben- 
iiettsburg and they have one child, Leon 



Roscoe. Andrew died at the age of twenty 
months, and Mary, the other maiiber of the 
Stoughton family, lived only ten days. Mr. 
Stoughton l)ecame a meml)er of Watkins 
j^ost, G. A. R. He attends the services of 
the ]\Iethodist Episcopal church and cast his 
iirst presidential vote for James C. Fremont. 
At one time he affiliated with the Greenback 
party but is now again an advocate of tiie 
Republican party. I'or a time he acted as a 
clerk of the scliool board in his district, prov- 
ing a capable officer, whose first interest was 
the welfare of his community. He has led a 
busy and useful life, has ever been found 
loyal to his country and has had many inter- 
esting incidents in an eventful career, which 
make him an aitertaining companion. 



IRA S. TOINIPKINS. 

The preservation of the Union demanded 
great sacrifices from both the north and the 
south, and the country owes a debt of grati- 
tude which can never be repaid to the sol- 
diers who were called forth to battle for the 
supremacy of the national government. 
.Among the minil)er who laid down their 
li\es on the altar of their country was Ira 
S. Tompkins, and surely his name should be 
engraved on the pages of the history of his 
native county. 

He was born on tlie 8tli of June. 1841, in 
.\lpine, a son of William and Lucinda Tomp- 
kins. His father was a resident of Dutchess 
county prior to locating in Schuyler county, 
while the mother of our subject was a native 
of Connecticut. In an early day Mr. Tomp- 
kins removed to tlie town of .Mpine. taking 
up his abode upon a tract of land, which he 
transformed into a very productive farm. 



514 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



It was upon that farm that the subject of 
this review was born and reared, early be- 
comings famihar with all the duties and la- 
bors that fall to the lot of the agfriculturist. 
Through the months of summer he worked 
in the fields and meadows, and when winter 
came he pursued his education in the public 
schools, being thus engaged until eighteen 
years of age. From that time until his en- 
listment in the army he followed farming. 
He watched with interest the course of the 
war, and at length felt that his first duty 
was to his country. His patriotism aroused, 
he desired to aid in the preservation of the 
Union, and on the 8th of December, 1863, 
he offered his services to the government, 
enlisting as a memlier of a cavalry regiment. 
?Ie was afterward transferred to an infantry 
command and was actively engaged in duty 
until 1864. when, on the 14th of May. at 
Spottsylvania Court House, he was cap- 
tured, being made a prisoner of war. He 
was then sent to Andersonville prison, and 
his constitution could not stand the hard- 
ships and privations incident to life in this 
southern prison pen. 

Before entering the army Mr. Tompkins 
was united in marriage on the 26th of Oc- 
tober, 1862, to Caroline Frost. Her father. 
Luther Frost, was bom February 4. 181 4. 
in Orange county. New York, and removed 
from that county to Schuyler county. He 
A\ as a man of good education and broad gen- 
eral culture, and became a prominent and in- 
fluential resident of his community. In po- 
htical views he was a Whig, and in his 
church relations was a Wesleyan Methodist. 
He married Miss Nancy Rockwell, who was 
iKtrn in Dutchess county. New York, March 
4, 1816. They located on Foot's Hill and 
became the parents of four children : Phelie 
Line, Orrin. Jonathan L. and Caroline. Of 



this number Orrin is now living in Odessa, 
where he works at general labor. Unto Mr. 
and Mrs. Tompkins was born one child, 
Jesse T., whose birth occurred April 11, 
1864. He was early deprived of a father's 
care but was conscientiously reared Ijy his 
mother. When he had reached man's es- 
tate he wedded Mary Delia Taylor, who 
was born in the town of N^ewfield, and they 
now have four children, Blanche, Grace, Ira 
and William. 

Though many years have passed since the 
death of Mr. Tompkins his memory is still 
enshrined in the hearts of those who knew 
him. He manifested qualities that won for 
him the admiration and respect of all with 
whom he had been brought in contact. He 
was upright and honorable, his life being in 
consistent liarmony with his profession as 
a memlx'r of tlie Wesleyan church. When 
the Republican party was organized he be- 
came one of its stanch supporters, finding 
in it the party that stood by the Union. It 
was in defense of his country that he laid 
ilown his life, and his name is now upon the 
roll of honor. ^Trs. Tompkins yet resides 
in Schuyler county, living upon a farm in 
Catharine township amid many warm 

friends. 

*—* 

WILLIAM HENRY JEFFERS. 

William Henry Jeffers, who is now en- 
gaged in general farming in the town of 
Hector, near Perry, was born in this town- 
ship February 4, 1827, his parents being 
Henry and Lavina (Searls) Jeffers. 
Throughout almost an entire century the 
family has been identified with the county, 
its representatives taking an active part in 
public progress, improvement and develop- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



5'S 



nient. hi the year 1815 the father of our 
siihject settled in tlie town of Hector, where 
he secured fifty acres of land, hut the title 
to this pr()])crty proved defective and he 
therefore lost it. He came from Putnam 
county. Xew York, accompanied by his wife 
and five sons: George, Cornelius, Isaac, 
Josepli and Jay. Five other children were 
added to the family after their arrival in this 
county, namely : Permelia, Iv'umie. Thom- 
as, Asenath and ^\'ilIiam. Only two of tliis 
number are yet living. William and his sister. 
Mrs. Shaw, who is now eighty-six years of 
age. The father was a mason by trade, and 
although he followed farming to some ex- 
tent he largely devoted his energies to the 
work of his chosen occupation. He would 
arise very early on Monday morning and 
walk from his home to Ithaca, a distance of 
about fourteen miles. There he would lay 
brick throughout the week and then on Sat- 
urday evening return home again on foot. 
Times were hard and money scarce in those 
early days and the family experienced many 
hardships and trials in an efifort to gain a 
living. The father died April 19, 1849, 
when about se\-enty-fi\-e years of age, and 
the mother's death occurred on the 12th of 
January, 1S62, when she was sixty-six years 
of age. She was a native of Putnam coun- 
ty. New York. 

William Henry Jeffers l>egan his educa- 
tion in the early subscription schools and 
also attended the Barber school. When he 
had completed his course of study he ga\c 
his attention to agricultural pursuits, and 
later he took up carriage painting and paper 
hanging, doing business both as a farmer 
and mechanic for many years. At the pres- 
ent time he carries on general farming and 
is the owner of fifty acres of improved land, 
which he has placed under a higli state of 



cultivation and which returns to him a good 
income because of the ready sale of his pro- 
ducts on the market. He has led a life of 
industry and enteqirise, his work being un- 
interrupted through all these years. At the 
time of the Civil war he was drafted from 
the first draft that was made, but was not 
accepted, on account of his teeth, it I:)eing 
necessary that the teeth sh.uld be perfectly 
sound because the pajier caps had to be bit- 
ten in two. Mr. Jeffers has other interests 
outside of his farming. In 1889 he began 
taking the temperature and conditions of the 
vveather, making records three times a day 
for the state. He is considered very accu- 
rate authority on everything in this connec- 
tion. He is nuich interested in the study of, 
astronomy, having read widely and deeply, 
and has perfected an arrangement illustrat- 
ing the action of the sun, moon, stars and 
the earth, also the effect which they have 
upon other planets. He has also invented 
a device for telling the exact location of the 
sini and in fact any other heavenly bodies, 
lie finds this a deep source of pleasure and 
interest, as well as of knowledge, and per- 
haps no man in Schuyler county is so well 
informed concerning astronomical subjects 
as is Mr. Jeffers. 

On the 20th of February. 1866, our sub- 
ject was united in marriage to Miss Jane 
Lucy Bloomer, a daughter of Joshua and 
Elizabeth (Scott) Bloomer. She was born 
in Ovid. Seneca county, November 8, 1S30, 
and having no children of their own Mr. 
and Mrs. Jeffers have adopted two daughters, 
Josephine ami Mary Denton. In religious 
faith Mr. Jeffers is a Baptist, having long 
held memlier^hip with the church of that <le- 
nomination in Trumansburg, where he has 
served as a deacon for twelve years. Politi- 
cally he is a Republican, and in the year 



5i6 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



1856 he cast his hrst presidential vote for 
John C. Fremont, since which time he has 
given liis earnest support to tlie men and 
measures of tlie party. He became a mem- 
ber of the Grange, and during the Civil war 
he was also a member of the Union League. 
Mr. Jeflfers has now passed the Psalmist's 
span of three score years and ten. He is 
an interesting old gentleman who can relate 
many interesting incidents concerning early 
life in this portion of the state, and his con- 
versation concerning his specialty brings to 
iiis iiearers many items of interest as well 
as of knowledge concerning astronomy and 
weather indications. 



JOSEPH B. COATS. 

For more than half a century Joseph B. 
Coats has resided upon a farm in Dix town- 
ship v^hich is still his home. He located 
here on the 20th of March, 1849, ^"d for 
some time was the owner of one hundred 
and forty acres of valuable land. He has, 
however, disposed of a portion of it but still 
retains about seventy-two acres, which is 
well cultivated and returns to him a golden 
liibute for liie care and labor bestowed upon 
it. 

Mr. Coats was born in the town of Hec- 
tor, then a part of Tompkins county, June 
8, 1824, and is a son of Joseph and Jane 
(Bellows) Coats. On the paternal side he 
is of Dutch ancestry. His grandfather, w-ho 
also bore the name of Joseph Coats, belonged 
to the' Fourth Regiment of the Line in the 
Revolutionary war and his name appears 
again as an enlisted man in the Sixth Regi- 
ment, Albany county militia, under the Land 
Bounty Rights. After the cessation of hos- 



tilities and the establishment of the new re- 
public he settled in the town of Scipio, Cay- 
uga county, Xew York. He married Rach- 
el Jones, who was born in New Jersey in 
1 76 1. He died in 1805 of a fever while 
returning from Albany, whither he had driv- 
en witli a load of grain. His widow mar- 
ried Thomas Sarjent Baker and died in 1845. 
His son, Joseph Coats, the father of our sub- 
ject, was born March 30, 1787, and came 
to Schuyler county about 1815, locating in 
liie tow II 01 Hector. In this county he spent 
his remaining days, his home being in the 
town of Catharine at the time of his death. 
On the 27tli of August, 1808, he married 
Jane Bellows, who was born March 5, 1792, 
and died October 21, 1857, and he passed 
away Febniary 12, 1863. 

The public schools afforded Joseph B. 
Coats his educational privileges and after 
putting aside his text books he gave his en- 
lire attention to agricultural pursuits, hav- 
ing received ample training in farm work 
during the period of his youth, for he as- 
sisted largely in the work of field and mea- 
dow upon his father's farm. On the date of 
his marriage he removed to the property 
which is still in his possession and through- 
out the long years of his life he has carried 
on agricultural pursuits in order to provide 
for his faniily. 

It was on the 20th of iMarch, 1849, that 
Mr. Coats was joined in wedlock to Miss 
Catherine E. Durbon, a daughter of Richard 
Clinton and Eliza Ann (Egbert) Durbon. 
Mrs. Coals \ias born in the town of Ulysses, 
Tompkins county, New York, Decanber zj. 
1S26, and in her early girlhood accompan- 
ied her parents to Millport, Chemung coun- 
ty, w'here her father died on the 23d of Aug- 
ust. 1833. Her mother long survived him 
and passed away May 4. 1879. Mr. Dur- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



SW 



bon was a native of Scipio, Cayuga county, 
New York, and removed from that locality 
to what is now Chemung, ihen Tiago coun- 
t\-. Mrs. Coats is descended from some of 
the oldest families of the new world. In 
the Chase line she comes of English ances- 
tors who crossed the Atlantic in the May- 
flower in 1620 in company with Governor 
Winthrop. They took up their abode in 
Connecticut, whence representatives of the 
name afterward removed to New York. 
Daniel Durbon, the grandfather of Mrs. 
Coats, and also her paternal great-grandfa- 
ther, were often mentioned in early colonial 
records, being prominent and influential citi- 
zens of the locality in wliich they lived. 
William Egbert, the maternal graiid father 
of Mrs. Coats, was united in marriage to 
Catherine W'artman, \\ho came from New 
Jersey to the Empire state, settling in 
Cayuga county at a very early day. He was 
of Scotch descent and the family was found- 
ed in the United States at an early epoch in 
our colonial history. 

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Coats have been born 
six children : Ella Frances, who is now the 
wife of L. E. Knapp. a resident of Deposit, 
New Yorl;, Russell H., who is a railway 
clerk and is living in Wilkesbarre, Pennsyl- 
vania; Mamie Lou, who became the wife of 
C. A. Rowe and resides in Marcellus. Onon- 
daga county. New York, her husband being 
a well known journalist, editing several pa- 
pers; Jennie Maude, who was formerly a 
teacher ni the county graded schools and 
now resides at home; an infant, deceased; 
and Ralph Clinton, who died in his third 
year. 

In the history of the agricultural inter- 
ests of Schuyler county Mr. Coats certainly 
deserves mention. Few residents of the lo- 
cality have longer been identified with farm 



work here than has the subject of this re- 
view. All through his career he has been 
found systematic in his methixls, honorable 
in his dealings, diligent and persevering. 
His success has been the result of persistent 
effort in the line of honest and manly trans- 
actions. His life has marked a steady 
growth and now he is in possession of an am- 
ple competence. More than all, he has that 
contentment which arises from the conscious- 
ness of having lixcd for a good purpose. 
Mrs. Coats has for many years been identi- 
fied with literary wurk, being the publisher 
of a book of poems entitled "Poems ann 
Fragments," another of "\\'atkins Glenn," 
and has vTitten a great deal for Farmers' 
Institutes and read papers before them and 
has taken ])art in many Sunday-school con- 
ventions in the same way, always taking a 
deep interest in all work pertaining to Chris- 
tianity. 

* ■ » 

JAMES M. QUICK. 

James .M. Quick, who carries on farm- 
ing in the town of Catharine, was born in 
the town of Entield, Tompkins county. New- 
York, June 16, 1S48. His paternal grand- 
father, Henry Quick, served in the war of 
1812, aiding in the preservation of American 
rights throughout the entire period of hos- 
tilities. He enlisted in the army when his 
son, Henry Quick, the father of our sub- 
ject, was but eight years of age. The son 
had been i)oni in Broome county in 1804, 
and he, too, was a valiant defender of his 
country, enlisting in the Union army at the 
tiiue of tlie Civil war. He married Fanny 
. Henry, and they became the parents of nine 
children : Joshua, Stephen, Lucy, Helen, 
Mary, John, James, Richard and Henrietta. 



SIS 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



After atlencling school for several years 
James M. Quick of this review left the 
schoolroom at the age of fourteen and joined 
the army. True to the military history of 
the family and piompted by the same patri- 
otic impulses which had caused his grandfa- 
ther and his father to join in defense of their 
country's rights and privileges, he offered 
his services to the government, although Init 
a mere boy, enlisting at Rochester, New 
York, January 4, 1864, and he was mustered 
in as a private on the i8th of February, 1864, 
to ser\e for three years, and after the close 
of the war was mustered out at Fort ]'err\', 
V^irginia. He participated in the battle of 
the Wilderness, of Spottsyhania Court 
House, Cold Harlwr, Petersburg. Punxa- 
tawny, Altoona and W'cldon Railroad. His 
serxices were commendable, being marked 
by the utmost loyally to the Union cause, 
and with a creditable military record he re- 
lumed home. V.\cu then lie was but a l:ioy, 
and he had displajed a xalor equal to tb.at 
of many a veteran of twice his years. 

\\'hen the war over Mr. Quick took up 
his abode in Ithaca, New York, but after 
a few years made his way to his native town 
and in Enhcld contlucted a hotel for three 
years. He afterward removed to the toun 
of Hector, where he lived for about ten 
years, and on the expiration of that decade 
he i)urcliased a farm in the town of Cath- 
arine. Here he built a log house, in which 
he lived for twenty years, when it was re- 
placed by a more modern and commodious 
frame residence in wliich he is now living. 
As a farmer he is practical, systematic and 
progressixe, and liis work is attended witli 
a fair measure of success, bringing to him 
:i good income. 

Mr. C)uick was united in marriage to 
Miss Clarinda Personius. wlu) was l>orn in 



Catlin April 16, 1853. They became the 
parents of the following children : Marshall^ 
born December 22, 1869; Norman B., who 
was born May 19, 1873, and died August 3, 
1899; Emmet, born March 11, 1875; Henry, 
born December 10, 1877; Herman, born 
August 28, 1879; Charlotte, who was born 
June 21. 1 88 1, and died September 29, 1S92; 
i^ulu, born .\pril 29, 18S3: .\rthur, born 
September 17, 1885; Delbert, born Septem- 
ber 23, 1888; Myrtle, born June 12, 1890; 
Maud Olena, torn February 3, 1892; and 
Fanny, born February 21, 1894. Mr. 
Quick ami his family attend the services of 
the Methooist church, of which he is a mem- 
ber. He votes with the Republican party, 
\vith which he has been identified since he 
attained his majority, having firm faith in 
Its principles and doing evtrything in his 
power to promote its growtli and insure its 

success. 

■» « » 

HOR.VCE J. PRENTISS. 

Schu\Ier county ofifers excellent oppor- 
tunities to the horticulturist, its soil being 
especially adapted for fruit raising, and 
many are the men who Iiave takai advantage 
of this opportunity and through business 
ability and perseverance have met witii cred- 
ital)le success in their undertakings. Mr. 
Prentiss is among those who have prospered 
as a fruit grower of this locality, and his life 
iiistory sliould be of interest to many of our 
readers because he is so widely and favorably 
known in this portion of the state. 

.\ native of New York, he was i>om in 
the town of Cameron, Steuben county, on 
the 1st of March, 1855, his parents being 
.Stephen and Polly (Robinson) Prentiss. 
His paternal great-grandfather. William 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



5t9 



Premise, was born in Cambridge. Massa- 
cliusetts, September 12, 1760. and was an 
oflictr in tbe American service in the war of 
181 2. He wedded Mary Watson, who died 
in Albany, Xew York. July 4, 1832. and 
his death occurred in 1815 near black rock, 
or Buffalo. Henry Prentiss, the grandfa- 
ther of our subject, was boni in Deerfield, 
Massachusetts, July 13, 1790, and died 
^larcii 21, 1863. On the 14th of January, 
1816, he married Rebecca Clark, wlio was 
bom September 18. 1793, and died January 
20.1835. They had seven children : Ethan, 
Stephen, Alonzo, William, ilary and Re- 
becca, all of whom are now deceased : and 
IMahala, the wife of William Blaine, pro- 
prietor of a hotel in Miciiigan. 

Entering upon his business career, Hor- 
ace J. Prentiss of this review began farmnig 
and gardening, which he has followed con- 
tinuous!) since, although of recent years he 
has given more attention to the cultivation 
and raising of fruit than of cereals such as 
are usually raised in this locality. At the 
time of his marriage he settled in the town 
of Dix, at the place where he is now living. 
This farm he inherited from his father, and 
he has made it verj' valuable by reason of 
the improvements which he has placed upon 
it. He now has three acres planted to rasp- 
berries, and these return about one hundred 
dollars to the acre in the season. He also 
has many other kinds of fruit, and his opin- 
ions are accepted largely as authority on all 
matters pertaining to h.orticulture. because 
his practical judgment has made him one of 
the best informed fruit growers of this lo- 
cality. The products which he places upon 
the market are noted for si^e and quality as 
well as flavor, and therefore find a ready 
sale, bringing to Mr. Prentiss a very grati- 
fying income. 

30 



On the 23d of March, 1892, occurred 
the marriage of our subject to Miss Amanda 
Allison, who was bom March i, 1864, in 
the town of Tyrone, Schuyler county. Her 
father, Xathaniel Allison, was also born in 
the town of Tyrone, and was united in mar- 
riage to Liddie Williamson. They became 
the parents of six children, namely: Myra, 
Lydia, Ima, Amanda, Crissie and Edward. 
The last named is now deceased. !Mr. and 
Mrs. Prentiss began their domestic life upon 
the farm which is yet their home, and their 
union has been blessed with one child, Earl 
Allison, who was born May i, 1894. They 
are people of the highest respectability, and 
because of their genuine worth they have 
gained the uniform regard of all with whom 
tliey ha\'e been brought in contact. They 
hold membership in the Methodist church 
and take a deep interest in its work and in the 
extension of its influence. Mr. Prentiss is 
a Republican in his political views and has 
never wavered in his allegiance to the party, 
for he believes that its platform contains the 
best elements of good government. He is 
a man strong in his individuality and in in- 
tegrity and deep human sympathy. 



PETER O'DAY. 



Peter 0"Day, who departed this life in 
1902, was a native of the Emerald Isle and 
was one of the worthy Irish-American citi- 
zens who form an important part of the pop- 
ulation of the Empire state. lie was born 
in County Clare, Ireland, in 1S27 and in 
1848 came to America, having in the me;m- 
iime pursued his education in the .schools of 
his native country, where he was also trainetl 
to habits of industry, economy and diligence. 
He had heard favorable reports of the op- 



520 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



porlunities offered in the new world and, 
wishing to better his own financial condi- 
tion, he resolved to establish his home in the 
United States. Accordingly he crossed the 
Atlantic in 1848 and took up his abode in 
Pennsylvania between Dansville and I\Iilton. 
There he worked on the Erie Railroad for 
two years, after which he removed to Ha- 
vana, New York, now ^Montour Falls, which 
town was then a part of Chemung county. 
There he invested his earnings in a farm one- 
half mile from the town and upon that place 
he continued to make his home throughout 
the remainder of his life. It is a good tract 
which he placed under a high state of culti- 
vation, the rich fields returning to him a 
golden tribute for the care and labor be- 
stowed upon them. 

Mr. O'Day was united in marriage to 
Miss Honora Pauls, who was also born in 
County Clare, Ireland, in 1828, and gave her 
hand in marriage to our subject prior to his 
emigration to the new world, accompanying 
him when he crossed the briny deep to be- 
come an American citizen. Unto them 
were born several childrai : Margaret 
Katie, Mary, John, Hannah, Stephen and 
Peter, who have all passed away; Stephen, 
who wedded Mary Kinney, of Jersey City, 
in 1897 ; Mary, who lives on the home farm ; 
and Katie, who became the wife of Dennis 
Kenelly in 1880 and lived in Penn Van, New 
York, where both she and her husband died, 
leaving one son, John, who is now seven- 
teen years of age and is living with his 
aunt near Montour Falls. 

At the time of his death Mr. O'Day was 
one of the oldest citizens of Schuyler county 
and was highly esteemed by all who knew 
him. He never has occasion to regret his 
determination to come to America, for here 
he found the business opportunities he 



sought, and through his industry and enter- 
prise he steadily worked his way upward un- 
til he secured a comfortable competence and 
gained a good home. 



JAMES PATTERSON. 

James Patterson is engaged in painting 
and paper hanging in Schuyler county, con- 
ducting his business from Mechlenburg. 
I'rogressive and enterprising, he keeps in 
touch witli tlie advancement of the times in 
regard to these two branches of business and 
his expert skill and reasonable prices have 
secured to him a liberal patronage which 
makes Inin one of the substantial residents 
of his town. 

Mr. Patterson is an adopted son of Amer- 
ica, his birth having occurred in Edinburg, 
Scotland, on the 19th of May, 1830. His 
parents were Archibald and E'.lizabelh 
(Scott) Patterson, who about 1837 bade 
adieu to the land of hills and heather and 
sailed for America. Tliey took up their 
alx)de in Jersey City, New Jersey, where they 
remained for a year and then came to Schuy- 
ler county, New York, where they spent their 
remaining d.iys, the father passing away in 
1866, while the mother's death occurred in 
the year 1S55. 

James Patterson was only about se\eii 
years of age when he accompanied his par- 
ents on the long voyage across the briny 
deep in a sailing vessel. lie was still but a 
small lad when they arrived in Schuyler 
county, and here he has since lived. He was 
educated in the district schools and in May, 
t86i, aroused by the attempt of the south to 
overthrow the Union, he offered his services 
to the rovcrnment and donned the blue uni- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



521 



form. He became a member of Company 
H, r'iftictb Xew York \'oluiiteer Infantry, 
enlisting at Elmira, and was in tlie battles 
of Freflericksburg, Petersburg, Wekloa 
Railroad, Seven Points. Spottsylvania Court 
House, Harper's Ferry, the second battle of 
Bull Run, and many other imiiortant engage- 
ments. His first term of enlistment having 
expired, he was honorably discharged at Fort 
Berrv, Virginia, on the 25th of August, 
1861. and on the 20th of December, 1863. 
lie re-enlisted at Rappahannock Station, be- 
coming a member of Company H, Fiftieth 
Regiment of New York Engineers, and alto- 
gether he served for four years and four 
nonths, receiving an honorable discliarge at 
Fort Berry in June, 1865. He was mustered 
out at Elmira and with a most creditable 
military record returned to his home. He 
was indeed a faithful and loyal soldier, and 
no native son of America was more proud 
of the old flag than Mr. Patterson. 

After his return home he resumed farm- 
ing, which he followed for a time and then 
turned his attention to the business of paint- 
ing and paper hanging, which he has since 
followed. He soon worked up a good trade, 
which has steadily increased and as the years 
have passed his patronage has been such as 
to bring to him a good income, making him 
one of the substantial citizens of his com- 
munity. 

In 1858, in Rathbone, Steuben county. 
New York, Mr. Patterson was united in 
marriage to Miss .Vnna Blood, a daughter of 
Amos and Ruhama (Ellis) Blood. They 
have a pleasant home in the southern por- 
tion of Mechlenburg, and Mr. Patterson is 
one of the best known and most popular men 
of his community. He belongs to Ellison 
Grand Post, No. 163, G. A. R., of Mech- 
lenburg, and thus he maintains pleasant re- 



lations with his old army comrades. His 
political support is ever given to the Re- 
publican party, and he attends the Methodist 
Episcopal church. Having long lived in 
this county, he is widely known, and the fact 
that many with wh.on; he has been acquainted 
from boyhood are numbered among his 
stancliest friends is an indication that his 
career has e\er been honorable and worthy 

of regard. 

■> ■ » 

AARON F. CHAPM.\N. 

A country has but one chief ruler, be he 
king, emperor or president. Comparatively 
few men can attain to the highest ofiices in 
oivil or military life, but commerce ofifers a 
broad and almost limitless field in which one 
may exercise his powers unrestrained and 
gain a leadership as the head of a chosen call- 
ing. Drawing the lessons which we do from 
the life of Mr. Chapman, we learn that quali- 
fications necessary for success are a high 
ambition and a resolute, honorable purpose 
to reach the exalted standard that has been 
set up. From an early age he has depended 
upon his o\\n resources and has won the 
proud American title of a self-made man. 
He is known throughout the entire country 
because of the high position which he has 
attained as a bridge builder and the result of 
his labors are seen in many sections of the 
United States. 

Mr. Chapman makes his home in Wat- 
kins. He was born on the Rock river, in 
Rockford, Illinois, August 2. 1844. His fa- 
ther, Porlcr S. Chapman, was a native of 
Saratoga county. New York, and his moth- 
er, who bore the maiden name of Ruth Ald- 
ridge, was bom in Rhode Island, near the 
city of Providence, where her father engaged 



522 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



in the raising of cranberries. Air. and Mrs. 
Chapman were married in Saratoga county, 
New York, at James Comers, where hved 
many representati\es of the name. They 
were prominent and intluential people anil did 
all of their business in Albany, Xew York. 
ID which city they would make trips by team. 
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Chap- 
man renio\ed to the west, where the subject 
of this review was born, but about 1852 re- 
lumed to -Schuyler county, where they spent 
their remaining days. Their c'iiildren were: 
Sarah, born in 1S32 ; George, in 1836 ; Aaron 
F., in 1844; Ruth, in 1846; and William 
P., in 1S52. Aaron F. Chapman was eight 
years of age wlien his parents returned to 
Schuyler county, New York, where they had 
previously lived. 

It was in Watkins that Aaron F. Chap- 
man pursued his education in the public 
schools. At the age of eighteen years lie 
began railroad work as a brakeman on a lo- 
cal freight for the New York & Lake Erie 
Railroad, acting in that capacity for about 
two and a half years, but at the time of the 
Civil war he put aside all business and per- 
sonal considerations in order that he miglit 
aid in the defense of the Union, enlisting in 
Company F, Fourteenth New York Infan- 
try, under Colonel Marshall, at Rochester. 
He was then mustered into service at El- 
mira and with the Ninth Anny Corps par- 
ticipated in the battles of the Wilderness, 
Spottsyhania Court House, North .\nna, 
Cold Harbor and Petersburg, the regi- 
ment remaining at the last named place from 
the 20th cf June until the 25th of March, 
following, in a siege of the city. Mr. Chap- 
man was taken prisoner at the opening of 
ihe campaign and held for twelve days, when 
he was paroled and sent to Annapolis. He 
then came home and his discharge papers 



were afterward sent to him. At one time 
he was wounded by a giuishot and was in 
the hospital for thirty days. 

\\'hen he had returned to the north Mr. 
Chapman began bridge building, construc- 
tion and general contract work, which he has 
successfully can'ied on up to the present time, 
executing contracts to the value of millions 
of dollars. In fact, he has become one of 
the most extensive and best known contract- 
ors ot America. He took and executed the 
contract for the timber work on the .Vulnirn 
division of the south branch of the Lehigh 
\ alley Railroad from Owega to Auburn, 
New York, amounting to one hundred thous- 
and dollars. He built the Charlotte bridge 
at a cost of eighty-five thousand dollars, had 
charge of the timber construction of the 
Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg Railroad 
from Salamanca to Rochester, New York, 
costing two hundred thousand dollars, and 
built the double track of the Buffalo division 
of the Erie road, a part of the Susquehanna 
system at a cost of one hundred thousand 
dollars. The following year he did the tim- 
ber work for the Chicago Air Line for one 
Inindred thousand dollars, and he built the 
Sodus Bay coal chutes at Sodus Bay, also 
the southern pier coal chutes and elevator, 
costing two hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars. He did the timber work on the Syra- 
cuse, Geneva & Corning Railroad, later the 
Fall Brook road and now a part of the New 
York Central Railroad system from Corn- 
ing north., at a cost of one hundred thousand 
dollars, and following this he constructed the 
Mottsville trestle and other timber work on 
what is now the Elmira branch of the Le- 
high ^'al!ey Railroad. The following year 
he built large coal wharves at Ashtabula, 
Ohio, for the Pennsylvania Railroad at a 
cost of fifty-five thousand dollars. He took 



k 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



523 



niul cxecutetl contracts for the Glean and 
Salamanca, then the Western Xew York & 
Pennsylvania Railroad, the contract amount- 
ing to one hundred thousand dollars. The 
next j-ear he built the wharves at I'rovidence, 
Rhode Island, for the Stonington Steamship 
Company, the contract amounting to eighty- 
five thousand dollars, and this work was 
followed by the construction of the timber 
work for the Chicago, Madison & Northern 
Railroad. In the execution of this work 
it required over a million lineal feet of tim- 
ber and the contract price was two hundred 
and forty thousand dollars. Mr. Chapmati 
next built the Georgia street trestle at Buf- 
falo, New York, the largest shipping trestle 
for coal in that city, this work being complet- 
ed at a cost of three hundred thousand dol- 
lars. Tiie next year he built the city ele- 
vator of Buffalo and took another big con- 
tract for Albright & Company. He after- 
ward bought out the Philadelphia & Reail- 
ing Railroad, contract price being two hun- 
dred thousand dollars, and he did the timber 
,vork for the new Lehigh Valley Railroad 
from Geneva to Buffalo at a cost of fifty 
thousanfl dollars. Another contract award- 
ed to him at one hundred and ten thousand 
dollars enabled him to extend the Skaneate- 
ies water system from Skaneateles to Syra- 
cuse. He built the Auton steamship freight 
house at Buffalo, one thousand by one hun- 
dred feet, for eighty-five thousand dollars, 
and his next contract was for the Buffalo 
Dredging Company, of which Mr. Chapmau 
was the president, for work in the city of 
Buffalo, amounting to two hundred and forty 
thousand dollars. He built the Sayrc shops 
for the Lehigh \'alley Railroad, costing two 
Iiundred thousand dollars; the Great North- 
ern elevator at Queljec for the Northern Rail- 
road Comiiany, with a capacity of one miIlio:i 



bushels, and at a cost of three hundred and 
five thousand dollars; the car shops for P. 
11. Griffiths, of the New York Central Car- 
wheel Company, of Buffalo, at a cost of 
twenty-seven hundred thousand dollars; 
the state pier at Geneva, New York, for 
eighty-five thousand dollars ; the W'est Shore 
dock at Buffalo for fifty thousand dollars; 
the Lehigh \'aliey freight house at Buffalo, 
one thousand by one hundred feet, for one 
hundred thousand dollars; and constructed 
the double tracks of the railroad between 
Emporia and Deadwood for eighty-fi\e 
thousand dollars. He executed a contract 
for the New York, Susquehanna Iron & Steel 
Company, of Buffalo, for Rogers, Brown & 
Compan}', theirs being the largest- steel and 
iron works in the world. In the executii.m 
of this contract Mr. Cha])man is now en- 
gaged, and it was awarded him for one hun- 
dred and sixty-five thousand dollars. He 
also has large contracts at the present time 
on which he is working in Emporium and 
.Sayre, Pennsylvania. The extent and vol- 
ume of his business can hardly be understood 
by those who are not somewhat familiar with 
construction work, and it is but just to say 
that Mr. Chapman has become a recognized 
leader in his lino in the country. 

On the 28lh of November, i866, oc- 
curred the marriage of ]\Ir. Chajiman and 
Miss Elizabeth A. Pangborn, a daughter of 
Nicholas Job and Mary Ann ( \'oung) Pang- 
h/orn and a native of Schuyler county. New 
\'ork, but at that time a resident of the town 
of Reading, Steuben county. Her parents 
were natives of New Jersey and lived there 
when it was a sla\e state. \\!illiam H. 
Young, the maternal grandfather of Mrs. 
Chapman, on coming to New York took up 
about six hundred acres of land at Ireland- 
ille and there he and his wife lived until 



524 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



their deaths. He purchased this land of a 
Air. Ireland, for whom lie acted as superin- 
tendent of his large tract of land, compris- 
ing thousands of acres, and afterward Mr. 
Young purchased a portion of this. He 
married Catherine Rhodenbaugh, a repre- 
sentative of a J«rsey-Dutch family. Unto 
Mr. and Mrs. Chapman have been born two 
children: Anna Ruth, the wife of Frank 
Crumm Hibbard, a resident of Buffalo, who 
is associated with ]\Ir. Chapman in his large 
contracting business; and Frances, the wife 
of Dr. Barney Crawford, a practicing phy- 
sician of Philadelphia. 

Mr. Chapman belongs to the Seneca Lake 
Ciub, of Watkins. He cast his presidential 
vote for Lincoln in 1864 and on one occasion 
he sen-ed as trustee of Watkins, but he has 
neither time nor inclination for political hon- 
ors. He attends the Presbyterian church 
and is deeply interested in measures for the 
benefit of the county in which he has so long 
made his heme. His success in all his un- 
dertakings has been so marked that his 
methods are of interest to the business and 
industrial world. He has based his busi- 
ness principles and actions upon strict ad- 
herence to tiie rules which govern industry, 
economy and unswerving integrity. His 
enterprise and progressive spirit have made 
him a typical American in every sense of 
the word. Tireless energy, keen preception 
and a genius for devising and executing the 
right thing at the right time, joined to every- 
day common sense, guided by a resistless 
will power, are the chief characteristics of 
tiie man. He has steadily advanced until 
to-day his reputation as a contractor and 
builder extends throughout the country and 
liis success has been commensurate with the 
extent and volume of his business. 



JACOB HAUSMER. 

Jacob Hausmer, who follows farming in 
Schuyler county, is a son of Alartin Haus- 
mer, who, after arriving at years of maturity, 
wedded Mary Mead and they became the 
parents of a large famil}-, numbering ten 
children, namely : Mary, Charles, Susan, 
Boardman, Almira, Jacob, Peter, Alonzo, 
Albertha and Edson. Martin Hausmer, the 
father, removed to Schu}ler county from the 
town of Peekskill, New York, settling in 
Odessa about a half century ago and there 
he reared his family. In his political views 
he was a stalwart Republican. 

Under the parental roof Jacob Flausmer, 
of this review, spent his boyhood days and 
was trained to habits of industry and econ- 
omy, w-hich have proven valuable factors in 
his successful career in later life. He at- 
tended the common schools until si.xteen 
years of age and then began working at the 
carpenter's trade. He also followed black- 
smithing, doing good work in both lines, 
and farming claimed his attention to some 
extait. During the Civil war, however, he 
put aside all business and personal consid- 
erations in order that he might aid his coun- 
try in defending the Union. He joined the 
army on the 8th of August, 1864, as a mem- 
ber of the One Hundred and Seventy-ninth 
Regiment of New York Volunteers, and 
served for nine months, being honorably dis- 
charged in 1865. He participated in the 
battle of Hatchie's Run, of Pigeon Run and 
was in five other skirmishes. After the 
close of the \\ar Mr. Hausmer received an 
honorable discharge and returned to his 
famih'. 

The lady who bears the name of our sub- 
ject was in her maidenhood Miss Sarah Hill 



I 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



525 



and is a ilaughter of August and Julia 
(King) Hill, in whose family were but two 
cliildren, the sister of Mrs. Hausnier being 
Aivira Hill, who married O. L. King, by 
whom she has two children, Bert and Es- 
tella. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Haus- 
mer has been blessed by the following 
named: W'alter A., Augustine, Mary and 
Emily. Walter married Belle Brink ; and 
Emily is the wife of Howard Clark, a car- 
penter by occupation. 

Jacob liausmer has followed in the po- 
litical footsteps of his father, and is an earn- 
est advocate of Republican principles with 
firm faith in the party. He is interested in 
ever}'thing pertaining to the general good 
and is wide-awake and progressive. What- 
ever he has accomplished in the business 
world is due to his own enterprise and in- 
dustry and he deserves great credit for hav- 
ing attained to an enviable position among 
the men of affluence in his community. 



DANIEL S. CRAWFORD. 

The growth and prosperity of any com- 
munity depends upon its business activity, 
and that in turn upon the character of its 
citizens. Mr. Crawford is one whose en- 
terprising spirit and unflagging industr}' 
have made him a valued representative of 
Schuyler county, his home being in Tyrone, 
wliere he is occupying the position of post- 
master and is also engaged in merchandis- 
ing as the junior member of the firm of 
Bissell & Crawford. He was born near Ke- 
«ka, Steuben county. New York, on the 17th 
of May. 1859, and is a son of Leonard and 
Mandana (Bailey) Crawford, who are now 
living in tiie town of Tyrone. 



The subject of this review was about six 
years of age when his parents came to Ty- 
rone, and here he was reared to manhood, 
obtaining a good education in the public 
schools, being thus (itted for the practical and 
responsible duties of business life. He also 
pursued a course in the Elmira School of 
Commerce when about eighteen or nineteen 
jears of age. Entering upon his business 
career he accepted a clerical position in Wes- 
ton, where he remained for a year and a half, 
and then his employer sold out, after which 
Mr. Crawford returned to his home. 

On the _'6tli of December, 1889. in Ty- 
rone, oiu' .subject was united in marriage to 
]\Iiss Myrtie May Bissell. a daughter of 
Emerson and Mary J. (.Alderman) Bissell, 
who are menlional on another page of this 
work. Their union has been blessed with 
one child, Emerson Bissell, who was named 
for his maternal grandfather and was Ijorn 
in Tyrone on the 20th of August, 189 1. It 
is with Mr. Bissell that ]ilr. Crawford is en- 
gaged in business, and the store is now a 
leading commercial center of Tyrone, a lib- 
eral patronage l)cing accorded them l;ccause 
of their correct business methods, honorable 
dealing and earnest desire to please their 
patrons. They also carry a large and a'.- 
tracti\-e stock. 

Mr. Ciawford gives his political support 
to the Republican party, witii wliich he has 
been identified since casting his first presi- 
dential ballot for Garfield in 1880. By his 
fciiow townsmen he has been called to pub- 
lic office, serving for three terms as collector 
of the town of Tyrone and as clerk for four 
years. On the ist of April, 1898. he was 
appointed postmaster and is still occupying 
that pos'tion. His religious faith is indi- 
cated by his membership in the Methodist 
Episcopal church, in which he is now serv- 



526 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



ing as a steward. Courteous, genial, well 
informed, alert and enterprising, he stands 
to-day as one of the leading representative 
men of his conimunitv. 



ALEXANDER STEWART. 

The new world has been peopled by rep- 
resentati\e3 of every civilized race on the 
face of the globe, but it has had no more 
va]ual)le class of citizens than those fur- 
nished by the Emerald isle. The sons of 
Erin possess not only industry but also 
adaptability, and have rapidly improved 
their conditions in the new world, making the 
most of their opportunities. They have 
thus become a valued factor in the citizen- 
ship of America, and of this class Alexander 
Stewart, an honored resident of Schuyler 
county, v.as a representative. He was bom 
in County Tyrone. Ireland, in the year 1810, 
and there the days of his boyhood and youth 
were passed. He uas early trained to habits 
of industry, economy and honesty — lessons 
which proved of value to him throughout 
the period of his manhood. In 1852 he was 
united in marriage to Miss Jane Jack and 
they became the parents of fourteen children : 
Alexander; Matilda Jane; Andrew: Mar- 
garet ; Samuel, deceased ; Thomas Alexander ; 
Isabelle; David; Susan; William; Robert; 
Elizabeth ; P21bertha ; and Catherine. Ma- 
tilda Jane, the eldest daughter, is the wife 
of Charles Sharp, a carriage painter living 
at No. 116 West Fifth street, in Elmira, 
New York, and they have four children : 
Earl ; George, deceased ; Homer ; an<l Cam- 
eron. Andrew Stewart, who is a farmer, 
married Neliie Wasson, l)y whom he has two 
children, .Mice and Jennie. Margaret Stew- 



art became the wife of Fitch Knowles. who 
is emplojed in the state hospital at Bing- 
hamton, New York, and they have one 
daughter, Mabel. Thomas Alexander re- 
sides in the town of Hornby, Steuben coun- 
ty, where he has a farm. Isabelle is the wife 
of Walter Wasson, a resident of Townsend, 
New York, and they have two children, Ida 
Belle and Stewart. David married Effie 
Wasson and with their daughter, Florence, 
ihey reside in W'atkins. Susan is the wife 
of Adelbert Spalding, who is employed in 
a washing machine factory in Lestershire, 
suburb of Binghamton, and they have two 
children, Edna and Helen. William is a 
firmer and fruit grower and married Maria 
Jane Jack, who died January 10, 1899. leav- 
ing one child, Samuel. Robert, who wedded 
Ella Bailey, is a resident farmer of Watkins. 
Alexander Stewart remained a resident 
of his native land until 1883. He then de- 
termined to come to America and, crossing 
the Atlantic to the new world, he settled in 
Schuyler county. New York, a mile and a 
half from Watkins, where he i)urchased a 
farm. Pleased with the new world he never 
desired to return as a resident to his native 
land, enjoying the opportunities of the new 
world and its advantages. He was a man of 
.strong individuality and marked force of 
character and in his adopted county he com- 
manded the respect and esteem of those with 
whom he was brought in contact. 



ERASTUS DEAN. 

Erastus Dean is an octogenarian living 
in Cayuta, Schuyler county. For eighty 
years he has traveled life's journey, and 
now in the e\ening of his career he can 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



527 



look back over ihe past witliout regret 
and forward to the future without fear, 
because liis hfe has been marked by ster- 
Hng rectitude of character. lie was born 
on the 7th of February. 1822, in Cay- 
uta, and tlie common schools of that day af- 
foided him his educational privileges. He 
was reared in this county when the work of 
improvement and progress seemed scarcely 
begun, when the hills were co\-ered with their 
native growtii of timber and grass and the 
rields were largely untouched by the jjIow. 
Wild game of many kinds abounded and tlie 
lakes were rich in fish. It remained to the 
sturdy, enterprising and progressive early 
settlers, of which 'Sir. Dean was one, to re- 
claim the land and make it culti\able and to 
carry on the work of progress and improve- 
ment until Schuyler county has become one 
of the richest farming districts of the great 
Empire state, sending its products into many 
sections. Throughout his business career 
Mr. Dean has carried on farming and now 
he has a valuable property, which returns to 
him a good income, supplying him with all 
of the comforts and many of the luxuries of 
life. 

At the age of eighteen years Mr. Dean 
left school and from that time forward gave 
his attention in an industrious manner to his 
farm work. In 1836 he was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Liddie Swartwood. and their 
union was blessed with eight chililrcn who 
brought li.ght and life to the household. 
Debbie, the eldest, is now residing in Cleve- 
land, Ohio. Kmmett, the second of the fam- 
ily, is deceased. Melissa is the wife of John 
Mathews, a resident of Pine Hollow, and 
their children were Nora. Belle, Maude. Til- 
lie, Ida. Samon and Johnnie, the last named 
now deceased. I-Veeman Dean was united 
in marriage to Miss Ellen Chapey, and they 



maintain their residence in Cayuta. Their 
children are : Phebe, Delia, Floyd, Hattie, 
Jessie, Edith and Stella, and of this numljer 
Hattie became the wile of Charlie Alcott and 
resides in Breesport, New York. Gwenn 
Dean was the next of the family. Charlie 
married Fj^lla Gelone and is employed in a 
tannery in Olean, where he is now living 
with his wife and four children. Lee, also 
a resident of Olean, married Lizzie Langbie 
and they ha\e two children. John, a resi- 
dent of Ithaca, New York, and a salt-maker 
by trade, married Amanda Brown and they 
iiave lour children. 

Mr. and Mrs. Dean have reared an ex- 
cellent family who are a credit to their name. 
in iiis political views Mr. Dean is a Demo- 
crat, having liecn a life-long supporter of 
the party. In his religious faith he is a 
Methodist and has ever been loyal to the 
cause of the church and its advancement. 
Honesty and fidelity to duty have been 
marked characteristics of his life and 
tlnoughout his career, covering eighty years, 
he has ever conmianded the respect and con- 
fidence of his fellow men. He certainly de- 
serves the esteem, which should ever be ac- 
corded to those who have advanced far on 
life's journey, and as one of the venerable 
citizens and early settlers of Schuyler coun- 
tv he deserves mention in this \-olume. 



LESTER BURCH. 



In the year 1885 Lester Burch located in 
Odessa, where he has since been numbered 
as a representative and highly respected citi- 
zen. A son of John and Eliza (Lester) 
liurch. he was bom on the 15th of Novem- 
ber, 1850, in the town of Covert, Seneca 



528 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



county, Xeu" York. I lis father was a na- 
tive of England, born in tlie year 1818, and 
ere leaving his native country he was united 
in marriage to Miss Lester, whose birth oc- 
curred in England in 1820. Thinking that 
he might have better business opportunities 
in the new world, he bade adieu to friends 
in his native land and in 1847 sailed for 
America, taking up his abode in Seneca coun- 
ty, New York. In his family were seven 
children. George, the eldest, married Nellie 
Reilev, b}- whom he had four children, and 
their home is in Elmira, New York. Sarah 
is living in the town of Veteran, Chemung 
county. Lester is the next of the family. 
William married Carrie Wakefield and re- 
sides in Millport, New York. Charles mar- 
ried Retta Mix, and tlieir home is in the town 
of Veteran, Chemung county. John, who 
wedded Myra Woodard, by whom he has 
four children, is living in Millsport, New 
York. Robert, who completes the family, is 
residing on the old homestead with his fa- 
ther, is married and has one child. 

Mr. Burch of this review was reared in 
the usual manner of farmer lads of the pe- 
riod, working in the fields through the sum- 
mer months, while in the winter seasons he 
attaided the public schools, thereliy acquir- 
ing an education which has fitted him for the 
transaction of business in later life. He has 
always carried on farming, and in connec- 
tion with the cultivation of his fields he op- 
erates a steam thresher, having followed the 
dual business for thirteen years. He re- 
jnained a resident of his native county until 
1885, when he removed to Schuyler county, 
taking up his al)0(ie in the town of Odessa, 
where he yet resides. His farming possess- 
ions comprise fifty acres and his place is un- 
der a high state of cultivation and equipped 
with all the modern improvements for car- 



rying on farm work. In his busniess afifairs- 
he has Ijeen very successful and in all trade 
transactions he is found reliable and trust- 
worthy. 

In 1870 Lester Burch was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Ellen Lunger, a daughter of 
Ludawick and I^Iaria (Scott) Lunger. 
Their children were Mary, Monroe and El- 
len. The first named is the wife of Wesley 
Graves, a resident of Odessa, and they have 
one child, Richard. In his political affilia- 
tions Mr. Burch is a stalwart Democrat, hav- 
ing advocated the measures of the party 
through the period since attaining his ma- 
jority. His church relations connect him 
with the Baptist denomination, for he has 
firm faith in its principles and teachings. He 
is a man of high rectitude of character and 
of geiutine worth, possessing qualities such 
as in every land and in every clime command 
respect and consideration. 



CRANDALL D. GRANT. 

With the industrial interests of Watkins 
Crandall D. Grant is now closely associated, 
being engaged in the manufacture of cider, 
of apple-butter and of different apple prod- 
ucts. In Watkins his business has grown 
to profitable proportions and Mr. Grant is 
accounted one of the representative men of 
the village, possessing an enteqirising spirit, 
wdiich has been manifested throughout his 
business career. He was bom in the town of 
Freetown, Cortland county. New York, Oc- 
tober 3, 1853, and is a son of Christopher 
and Anna J. (Tatman) Grant. wIki in 1862 
removed to Chenango county. New York, 
the father leaving his family there while he 
joined the army, becoming a private of Com- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



529 



pany E, One Hundred and FourteentJi New 
York Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted 
to the rank of colonel and served until 1864, 
being with the army of the Potomac and 
taking part in' the battle of Winchester un- 
der General Sheridan, also in the engage- 
ment at Port Hudson, after which he was 
sent on the Red river expedition and into 
Texas. There he was taken ill, and for 
many months he lay in a hospital at Brazos 
City, Texas, but eventually was sent home, in 
He died in Ciienangi) county, Xew York, in 
1873, 'lis remains being interred in the cem- 
etery at Pharsalia Center. He left a widow 
and seven children. 

As tlie family were in limited financial 
circumstances Mr. Grant of tliis review was 
early obliged to earn his own living, starting 
cut in life when but ten years of age. He 
worked as a farm hand until he reached the 
age of twenty years, during that perio<l at- 
tending school during the winter months, 
while his labors were devoted to field and 
meadow during the summer season. At 
the age of nineteen years he turned his 
attention to the cooper's trade, and, possess- 
ing natural mechanical ability, he soon mas- 
tered the business, wliicii he followed as a 
joumeyman for twenty years. In 1874 he 
came to Watkins, where he was employed as a 
joumeyman until about 1890, when he estab- 
lished a cooper shop of his own and has since 
carried on business along this line. In 1896 
he also extended the field of his labors by 
establishing a cider mill, and in the manu- 
factory of cider and apple butter he has se- 
cured a good patronage, which adds materi- 
ally to his income. 

In 1876 Mr. Grant was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Emma Mills, who was born 
in the town of Dix and is a daughter of 
Jacob Mills. She survived her marriage 



only about a year and was tlien called to the 
home beyond. In 1878 Mr. Grant was 
again married, in Montour I'alls, his second 
union being with Miss Jane Baker, who was 
born in Havana, a daughter of Edward 
Baker, and they now have two children. 
W'illard, tlie elder, born in Watkins, is a fore- 
man on tiic Northern Central Railroad and 
married Alice Canfield, by whom he has two 
children, Doras and Crandall. Christopher, 
the younger son, is at home with his par- 
ents and follows the plumber's trade in the 
employ of Mr. Durland. 

Voting with the Republican party and 
casting his first presidential ballot for Hayes 
in 1876, Mr. Grant keeps well informed on 
the issues and questions of the day, but has 
never been an office seeker, preferring tiiat 
his attention should be given to his business 
affairs. He belongs to the Baptist church 
and is a member of Canadasaga Lodge, No. 
196, I. O. O. F., in which he has passed all 
of the offices, winning the uniform regard 
of his bret!n-en of the fraternity, because of 
iiis allegiance to its teachings and its broad 
humanitarian spirit. 



GEORGE H. CHAPMAN. 

Through almost a half century George 
H. Chapman has been engaged in farming 
in the township of Reading, Schuyler coun- 
ty. He was born in Saratoga county. New 
York, May 22, 1825, a son of Noah and 
Eiiza (Himrod) Chapman, the former a na- 
tive of Saratoga county and the latter of 
Lodi, Seneca county, New York. Israel 
Chapman, the paternal grandfather of our 
subject, settled in what is now the town of 
Reading, at a very early day. and there his 



530 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



son Xoah \\as reared, remaining on the old 
liomestead until after his marriage, when he 
renio\'ed to Saratoga county, where his son 
(George was born. When the child had 
reached the age of three years the father re- 
turned to the town of Reading, and here 
George H. Chapman was reared, while in the 
common schools he obtained his education, 
also spending one year as a student in the 
Plattsburg Seminary. For tliree terms he 
engaged in teaching school, spending two 
terms in this county and one term in Michi- 
gan. 

In 1 85 1 he was in Watkins and there he 
formed the determination to go to Cali- 
tornia, hoping that he might more rapidly 
acquire fortune amid the mines of the Golden 
state. Accordingly he proceeded to the far 
west by way of the Nicaraugua route, being 
forty-two days upon the trip. For a time he 
remained upon the Pacific coast, after which 
he returned home with a good sum as the 
result of his labor. He then purchased fifty 
acres of land, and in order to complete ar- 
rangements lor having a home of his own he 
was united in marriage to .Sarah J. Tracy, 
the wedding taking place in the town of Dix, 
on the 20th of December, 1853. Unto this 
marriage were born two children, Ida -May, 
who died at the age of twenty-one years : and 
Charles, who is still upon the home farm. 

Mr. Chapman's second purchase of land 
brought him nine acres and at different times 
he purchased eleven, then twelve, afterward 
three and later sixteen acres, so that he had 
altogether about one hundred and eleven 
acres. Of this he gave twelve acres to his 
son, still retaining posssession of the bal- 
ance. Since the organization of the Rcpuli- 
lican party he has been one of its earnest ad- 
vocates, and in 1856 he voted for John C. 
I'Vemont. Upon the Republican ticket he 



was chosen justice of the peace, holding the 
ofHce for sixteen years, during which time he 
tried many cases, but no decision which he 
rendered in all that time was ever reversed, 
a fact- v.hich .shows that he was strictly fair 
and impartial in the discharge of his duties. 
Through a half centun,- he has resided upon 
the farm which is yet his home, and he is to- 
day one of the respected agriculturists of the 
community, a man who by his blameless pri- 
vate life and progressive spirit in public af- 
fairs has become a valued resident of Schuyler 
count}'. 



CHARLES CHAPMAN. 

This well known citizen of Schuyler 
county is one of the largest sheep-raisers of 
southern New York and has been instru- 
mental in imi)roving the grade of stock pro- 
duced in this state. His efforts therefore 
have been of public benefit, for the improve- 
ment of stock adds to its market value, and 
the wealth of the agricultural class is thereby 
augmented. Mr. Chapman is extensively 
engaged in the raising of thoroughbred Cot- 
swold and Hampshire sheep, and in addition 
to this his energies are devoted in some meas- 
ure to the cultivation of his fields and the 
further development of his farm which is 
\aluable property in Reading township. He 
was born upon this farm. June 26. 1863, a 
son of George H. and Sarah J. (Tracy) 
Chapman. The father is still living at the 
age of seventy-eight years and makes his 
home with our subject, but the mother passed 
away about three years ago. 

On the old homestead farm Charles 
Chapman was reared, and in addition to the 
educational advantages afforded by the com- 
mon schools he had the privilege of attend- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



531 



ing the Dundee high school, where lie re- 
mained as a student for about two years. 
At tlie age of nineteen he began teaching, 
following that profession for a year, when 
he returned to the home farm because his 
father was in ill health, and as he was the 
only son it seemed necessarj- that his atten- 
tion should be devoted to agricultural pur- 
suits. The father owned ninty acres of land, 
while Mr. Chapman is the possessor of one 
hundred and thirty-tive acres, one hundred 
and twenty-five acres of which he purchased 
with his own earnings. His farm is now 
splendidly developed and highly improved 
with all modem accessories and upon it he 
has valuable herds of sheep of the Cotswold 
and Hampshire varieties. 

On the 3 1. St of July, 1885, in the town of 
Orange, Mr. Chapman was married to Miss 
Hattie Belle Weljb. She died in July, 1899, 
and on the 13th of February, 1901, at Ben- 
nettsburg in the town of Hector, he was 
again married, his second union being with 
Mrs. Lottie Smith, a daughter of S. B. and 
Lucy (W'right) Sackett, and a lady of 
superior culture and refinement who was 
educated in Cook Academy. This union has 
been blessed with one daughter, Ruth, born 
Tune 13, 1902. 

Mr. Chapman is an earnest Republican 
who has labored for the welfare of the party 
since casting his first presidential vote for 
James G. Blaine in 1884. He was elected 
inspector, excise commissioner and assessor, 
serving in the last named position for six 
years and in 1901 he was chosen super\'isor 
of the town of Reading, while he has also 
been a member of the equalization commis- 
sion and chairman of several other boards. 
Active in political work he has frequently 
served as a delegate to the conventions of his 
party, and when nominated to the position 



of super\isor he changed the usual Demo- 
cratic majority of one hundred and four 
into a Republican majority of thirty-two, a 
fact which is indicative of his personal popu- 
larity and the confidence reposed in him by 
his fellow townstnai. 



PHILO BEARDSLEY. 

\\hen the country became involved in 
Civil war, when the question of slavery was 
the paramount issue before the people and 
its extension and suppression became a mat- 
ter of contest between the north and south, 
Philo Beardsley entered the Union army and 
gallantly fought for the old Hag and the 
cause it represented. He well deser\es to 
be numberetl among the boys in blue to whom 
the country owes a debt of gratitude. 

He was born in Lansing\'ille, in the town 
of Newfield, Tompkins county. New York, 
on the 1 2th of May, 1839, and at the usual 
.nge he entered the public schools, pursuing 
an English education until he reached the 
age of fifteen, after which he began earn- 
ing his own livelihood, working by the 
month as a farm hand. He was alx)ut twen- 
ty-three years of age when he offered his 
services to the government in defense of 
the Ljiion cause, enlisting qn the nth of Au- 
gust, 1862. in the Twenty-second Regiment 
of ^Michigan Volunteers. He became a 
member of Company C, with which he served 
for six months. On the 15th of September, 
1864, he re-enlisted and served for a year 
and a half, being honorably discharged on 
the 15th of May, 1866. He served alto- 
gether for about three years and was honor- 
ably discharged at \'ictoria, Te.xas, after the 
close of hostilities, having been engaged in 



532 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



guard duty in the Lone Star state. He was 
a faithful soldier and always true to e\'ery 
trust reposed in him, whether it called him 
to the lonely picket line or to the thickest of 
the fight. 

Returning to his home Mr. Beardsley 
located in Odessa, New York. He was 
united in marriage to Elizabeth Rogers in 
1 86". The lady is a daughter of Robert P. 
and Elizaljeth Rogers, who then resided in 
the town of Hector, New York. Mrs. Rog- 
ers, however, was born in the town of Cath- 
arine. By their marriage the)' became the 
parents of the following children: Emma; 
Elizabeth; Oliver; Lewis, deceased; J. \V. ; 
and Delia A. Of this family J. W. Rogers 
married Ida Bell and now lives in Burdett, 
New York. Delia is at home and her father 
lives with her and is engaged in the cultiva- 
tion of fruit. 

Mr. and Mrs. Beardsley began their 
domestic life in Burdett, where our subject 
\\as employed in a wagon shop for one year. 
He then secured a situation in a sawmill, 
^vhere he also remained for a year, but for 
some time past he has devoted his attention 
to agricultural pursuits and is regarded as 
one of the enterprising and industrious farm- 
ers of his community. His place is well 
kept, everything being neat, orderly and 
systematic, and in the prosecution of his 
work he is meeting with well merited suc- 
cess. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Beardsley 
has been blessed with the following cliil- 
dren : William A.; Delia Ann; Winetta; 
George H. ; Howard, deceased ; Lavina B. ; 
Johnnie, deceased; J. W. ; and Bessie B. Of 
this number, William, the eldest, resides in 
Perry City, New York. lie wedded Mary 
Morgan and their children are Grace and 
Bentlev. Grace is the wife of Charles H. 



.\ckley, of Horseheads, and they have four 
children, Delia Ann Beardsley is now the 
wife of Dr. J. E. Lovell, a resident physician 
of Lodi. Winetta is the wife of Nicholas 
F. Davis, a resident of Wilkesbarre, Pennsyl- 
vania, and they have three children, Homer, 
Emma and Richard. George H. Beardsley 
married Jennie Connelly and resides in Wil- 
lard, New York, with his wife and one child. 
Lavina B. is employed in a shoe factory at 
Horseheads. J. W., the youngest son of the 
Beardsley family, is at home, as is also 
Bessie. 

As a citizen Mr. Beardsley is as true to- 
day to his country as he was when he fol- 
lowed the old flag on southern battle-fields. 
Public spirited and progressive, he is inter- 
ested in everyUiing pertaining to tlie general 
good and co-operates heartily in many move- 
ments and measures for the welfare of his 

comnnmity, 

■♦ » » 

SEELEY HODGES COVERT. 

Seeley Hodges Co\-ert is a respresenta- 
ti\e of one of the oldest families of this sec- 
tion of New York. He resides in Montour 
Falls and is widely and favorably known 
there. His paternal grandfather, Peter Cov- 
ert, was one of the first to establish a home in 
this district. He was born at North Branch, 
Somerset county, New Jersey, July 4, 1805, 
and January iS, 1889, at the age of eighty- 
three years, six months and thirteen days, 
passed away. In his youtli he attended the 
public schools and assisted his father in con- 
ducting a hotel and in managing a mercan- 
tile enterprise. When eighteen years of age 
he secured a clerkship in a store in New 
Brunswick, New Jersey, where he remained 
for a year. During the two succeeding years 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



533 



lie was employed in a wholesale establish- 
ment in New York city. At the age of 
twenty-one he came to Ovid, traveling in a 
large covered wagon, after the primitive 
manner of that lime. Mr. Covert was not 
in good health then and his family physician 
had advised him to try a change of climate, 
recommending the "lake country", as this 
district was then called. Mr. Covert soon 
obtained employment in the tanning busi- 
ness, being thus engaged for three years, 
after which he worked by the month as a 
farm hand for a year, and during that time 
he married Miss Caroline Thompson, a 
daughter of his employer. The marriage 
was celebrated January 5, 183 1. They lived 
together for more than a half a centur\-. The 
year following their marriage they located 
upon a farm and after a year Mr. Covert be- 
gan operating his father-in-law's farm on 
shares. There ail of their nine children, with 
one exception, were born. Later turning his 
attention to the grocery business he con- 
ducted a store in Ovid with marked success 
for thirty years. He became one of the most 
prominent and influential men of his com- 
munity. His was a life of industry, frugal- 
ity, sobriety and uprightness of character 
and in all matters pertaining to the general 
good he was found to be public spirited and 
progressive, doing whatever he could to ad- 
vance the welfare of his community. His 
word was as good as his tond and his life of 
morality and integrity was above reproach. 
Peter D. Covert, one of the nine children 
of Peter Covert and the father of our sub- 
ject, was born and reared in this locality and 
after arriving at years of maturity wedded 
Louisa Green in the town of Ovid, Seneca 
county, on the 17th of September, 1864. 
They became the parents of Seeley Hodges 
Covert. The latter was educated in the 



schools of his nali\e place and after putting 
aside his text books he turned his attention 
to the business of caring for and dealing in 
horses. He remained in Seneca county un- 
til 1881, when he removed to Dundee and 
engaged in the same line of business for two 
years. On the expiration of that period he 
established a barber shop in Horseheads in 
partnership with his brother, Alfred B. Co- 
\ert, remaining at that place for two years. 
1 le next came to Montour Falls and engaged 
in the same business, which claimed his at- 
tention until 1892, when he established his 
]iresent livery stable. He began with seven 
horses, and at the present time has eight 
business horses and two colts. Previous to 
this time he kept ten horses for a considerable 
period. He has done the undertaker's driv- 
ing in this vicinity for ten years and he re- 
ceives a liberal patronage in his business 
because of his earnest efforts to please his 
customers and his known reliability. 

In 1886 Mr. Covert was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Anna M. Neish, a daughter of 
William and Mary (Ormiston) Neish. Mrs. 
Covert's people were of Scotch ancestry and 
removed from Delaware county to Chemung 
county. New York. Her paternal grand- 
father, William Neish, was a native of Scot- 
land, as was his wife, who bore the maiden 
name of Helen Cowan. William Neish, Jr., 
the father of Mrs. Covert, was born in Che- 
mung county and his wife was a native ot 
Delaware county. Her father, John Ormi- 
ston, was born in Philadelphia, and his wife, 
Ella Coulter, was a native of Scotland. 
.After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Neish re- 
moved to the town of Horseheads, Chemung 
county, where they lived for many years. 
The father died on Thanksgiving Day of 
1 90 1, and the mother passed away August 
31, 1884. Tic was a soldier of the Civil war, 



534 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



enlisting in Elmira as a member of Com- 
pany A, First New York Volunteer Cavalry-. 
He served for four years, participating in 
many battles of the war, and was wounded, 
being shot in the foot, and ever afterward 
carrying the reW bullet. Because of his 
meritorious conduct on the field of battle he 
was promoted to the rank of captain. 

Unto Mv. and Mrs. Covert have been 
born two children : Sayre O., born May 23, 
1888; and John, born August 26, 1901. In 
his political views Mr. C'overt is a Repul>h- 
can and religiously is a free thinker. 



ABRAHAM C. COVERT. 

Abraham C. Covert, who is engaged in 
operating the Tyrone mills belonging to tlie 
Amet-Ogden Memorial Hospital at Elmira, 
is a worthy representative of industrial in- 
terests in this portion of Schuyler county 
and his excellent qualities as a business man 
and citizen have gained for him the good will 
and confidence of all witli whom he has been 
associated. He was bom in Lodi, Seneca 
county, Ohio, April 7, 1838, a son of William 
and Lydia (Hoover) Covert. His paternal 
grandfather, John Covert, was a pioneer set- 
tler of the Empire state, removing from \''ir- 
ginia to Seneca county when that portion of 
New "^^ork was largely an undeveloped wil- 
derness. Later, with a number of families, 
he left the Empire state and settled in Ohio, 
giving the name of Lodi to the town and 
Seneca to the county in honor of the old home 
place. 

In the meantime William Covert had 
reached mature years, had married, and he, 
too, went with his family in the party of 
travelers who left for the west. In June, fol- 



lowing, he was killed, and in September of 
the same year the mother returned to New 
York, settling in the town of Tyrone, where 
her people were living. Since that time the 
subject of this review has made his home in 
tliis place. H is maternal grandfather, Abra- 
ham Hoover, was bom in Bergen county, 
New Jersey, and removed thaice to Wilkes- 
barre, Pennsylvania, where he was married 
and where Mrs. Lydia Co\-ert was Ijorn. In 
1 81 2 he brought his family to Tyrone and 
the same year he was drafted for ser\ice in 
tiie second war with England. He remained 
w ith the army for three months, being sta- 
tioned at Fort Niagara. A farmer by occu- 
pation, through his industry- and diligenca 
in business he became well-to-do and owned 
two hundred acres of valuable land not far 
from Weston. 

After the return of Mrs. Covert from 
Ohio to New York, she and her children 
lived with her father, the subject of this re- 
view making his home with his maternal 
grandfather throughout the period of his 
youth. He acquired a common school edu- 
cation and when about twenty-four or 
twenty-fi\-e years of age he began working 
in the mill, receiving live dollars a month 
compensation for his services during the 
first year and twelve dollars the next year. 
He applied himself diligently to the ma.stery 
ot the business, gradually working his way 
upward, and to-day he is the head miller in 
charge of the enterprise. 

On the 19th of November, 1865, in Dun- 
dee, Mr. Covert was united in marriage to 
Miss Helen Hinirod, of Dundee, who was 
born in Burdett, and is a daughter of Will- 
iam and IMargaret (Beard) Himrod. Mr. 
Covert is a Democrat in his political views 
and for five years he served as overseer of 
the poor, but has never been a politician in 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



535 



tlie sense of office seeking. He belong-s to 
Lamoka. Lodge. Xo. 463, V. & .\. M.. in 
wiiicli lie has filled all of the chairs, and for 
five years he has served as a representative 
to the grand lodge, a fact which is indicative 
01 the confidence and trust reposed in him by 
his brethren of the fraternity. He is a 
worthy exemplar of the craft, true to its 
beneficent teachings and to its spirit of 
brotherly kindness. 



LORENZO ROSEBROOK. 

Mr. Rosebrook is well known in Schuy- 
ler county and it is with pleasure, therefore, 
that we present to our readers the record of 
his life. He was l)om January 16, 1842, in 
Cayuta, and acquired a common-school edu- 
cation. His father. Sumner Rosebrook, 
now deceased, was horn in Xewfield and 
when he had reached man's estate he wedded 
Bessie Savercool. They became the parents 
of the following children : John, Sumner, 
Theadish. Clara, Sarah, Susan, Mary, 
r"harlie and Antoinette, the last three de- 
ceased. 

Lorenzo Rosebrook was united in mar- 
riage on the i8lh of March, 1866, to Miss 
Catherine Ennis. Her father, Benjamin En- 
nis, was boni in Cayuta, November 18, 
1802, a representative of one of the oldest 
families of the county. Here amid the 
scenes of pioneer life he was reared. He 
wedded Sally Gersie, and they became the 
parents oiF three children : Flora, now de- 
ceased; Catherine, the wife of our subject; 
and Mrs. Maria Barnes. The last named is 
a resident of Van Ettenville, and her chil- 
dren are Filance, Brencott, Rachel, Emmet, 
Ida .A. and Dean. 

31 



The home of Mr. and Mrs. Rosebrook 
was blessed with two chiklren. .\lma and 
L. R., but the latter has departed this life. 
.Mnia is the wife of John W'olever, and they 
reside in Ithaca, her husband being em- 
ployed as a fireman on the railroad. 

Mr. Rosebrook is now engaged in trav- 
eling. His political views are those of the 
Republican party and his religious faith is 
that of the Baptist church, with which he 
has long held membership. This is indica- 
tive of his honorable, upright life, his quali- 
ties of manh.ood and his salient characteris- 
tics being such as have gained for him the 
respect and confidence of those with whom 
he has been associated. 



JOHN EDWIN SCHUYLER. 

As long as Schuyler county maintains 
its existence so long will the family name of 
our sul)ject be connected therewith, for it 
was in honor of the Doctor's ancestors that 
this county was named. He comes of a fam- 
ily distinguished in .American history. In 
ever\- war in which the country has been 
engaged, with the exception of the Mexican, . 
memliers of the family have been found as 
loyal defenders of right and principle. The 
iirst of the name in the new world came 
from Holland, crossing the Atlantic about 
1630, and establishing a home in New York. 
\Vhen the early Indian wars occurred the 
Schuylers were brave soldiers, defending the 
colonists from the attacks of the red men. 
They also took part in the colonial wars, 
and when the yoke of British oppression be- 
came unbearable and it was resolved to 
sever all allegiance to the crown of Great 
Britain again the Schuyler family was rep- 



536 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



A 



resaited by valiant soldiers who aided in the 
establishment of the Republic. Other rej)- 
resentatives of the name were in the war of 
1812. aided in quelling the Whiskey Insur- 
rection of 1819, and wore the country's uni- 
form in the Civil war and the Spanish war. 
The Doctor has one brother who was in the 
Union army, serving in two different regi- 
ments. He enlisted twice and during his 
second term of service was captain of a com- 
pany. He is now a resident of Oregon. 
The ])a rents of our subject were Peter and 
Maria (Ten Broeck) Schuyler. 

The Doctor was born in Ulster county, 
and when but two years of age was taken by 
his parents to Columbia county. He pur- 
sued his preliminary education in the public 
scliools and afterward entered Hudson 
Academy. Then determining to engage in 
the practice of medicine he began prepara- 
tion for that ])rofession, which he followei! 
for a time and later he abandoned it for the 
practice oi dentistry. He was connected 
with the latter for many years, enjoying a 
liberal patronage. At length, however, he 
left professional life to become a factor in 
commercial circles in IMccWenburg, where 
he is now conducting the only drug store of 
the place. 

True to the history of his ancestors, and 
with the blood of Revolutionary heroes low- 
ing in his \eins. Dr. Schuyler joined the 
Union ;u"niy during the dark days of the 
country's ])eril, from 1862 until 1865. He 
enlisted at Hudson, New York, as a member 
01 Company .\. One Hundred and Twenty- 
eighth New York Infantry, and served for 
three years as a hospital steward. He par- 
ticipated in the battles of Port PIud.son, May 
27 and June 14, 1863, and Cedar Creek. Oc- 
tober 19, 1864. and joined in the engage- 
ments of Red River, Winchester and Savan- 



nah. He was also in many skirmishes and 
was ever loyal and found at his post of duty, 
no matter where it called him. He was dis- 
charged July 26, 1865, the war having 
ended, and with a creditable military record 
he returned to his home in Hudson, New 
^(.rk. 

On the 27th of April, 1871, Dr. Schuyler 
was united in marriage to Miss Amie E. 
Stephenson, a daughter of Andrew and 
Susan (Bement) Stephenson. They have a 
pleasant home in MecMenburg, the cordial 
hospitality of many friends l)eing extended 
to them, they being numbered among the 
liest residents of the town. The Doctor is 
a Mason, having joined the craft at Hudson. 
New York. He is classed among the i)ro- 
gressive business men of his coiuity, and in 
mercantile circles, as in professional life, he 
has won distinction by his close application, 
his ability and his progressive spirit. 



JOHN L. DAVIES. 



John L. Davies, who is carrying on 
agricultural pursuits in the town of Hector, 
Schuyler county, is one of the adopted sons 
of the new world, for he was born in Corn- 
wall. England, on the 14th of April, 1855. 
His father, Jacob B. Davies, was also a na- 
tive of the same land, born in the year 1822. 
His wife bore the maiden name of Mary 
Bailey and was born in 1821. They were 
the parents of five children: John L.. of 
this review: Marion, now deceased; James; 
Nicholas ; and Richard. 

In the schools of his native land John L. 
Davies pursued his education and there fol- 
lowed farming and gardening. When 
eighteen vears of age he bade adieu to friends 
in his native land and sailed for the new 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



537 



world, believing that lie owld have better 
business oppnrtnnities in the I'nited States. 
He took up liis abode in Scliuylcr county. 
where he has since lived, and here he has 
carried on farming with good success. 

Mr. Davies was united in marriage to 
Miss Carman. Her father. Ricliard Car- 
man, was born April 4. 1817. and her 
mother, who in her maidenhood l)ore the 
name of Melvina W'eyburn, was born on the 
i/th of September, 1819. In their family 
were six children, as follows : George, Ixsrn 
June 22, 1844; Phebe, bom April 28, 1847; 
Henr)-, who was born in 1851 and is now 
deceased: Martha, born in 1854: Jane, born 
July 25. 1857; and Ellen, born March 9, 
1865. The home of Mr. and I\Irs. Davies 
has l>een blessed with eight children : Ellen 
M.. born Eebruary 18. 1883; Walter, born 
December 8. 1885: Henry, born January 14, 
1887; Weyburn, lx)rn April 22, 1888: 
Ralph, born May 8, 1890; Harold, torn 
September 11. 1892; Edgar, l»rn October 
3. 1894: and Dorothy, born July 28, 1898. 
The hope that led our subject to leave his 
native land and seek a home in America has 
been more than realized here. He has found 
the opportunities he sought, and, making the 
most of these, he has steadily worked his 
v.ay upward. He possesses the resolution, 
discrimination and reliability .so character- 
istic of people of his nation and his name is 
now enrolled among the best citizens of 
Schuvler countv. 



CORNELIUS RORICK. 

Cornelius Rorick, who proved his loyalty 
to the Union cau.se by following the old flag 
upon southern battle-fields, is to-day a val- 
ued citizen of Sclnnler countv. following 



farming in Cayuta township. He was Ixjrn 
on the 8th of April, 1841, in the town of 
Xewtield. Tompkins county, Xew York. 
;ind is a son of Jcjhn and Elizabeth Rorick. 
'i'he days of his boyhood and youth were 
([uietly passed, his time being occupied with 
matters usually demanding the attention of 
a wide-awake, li\cly boy. He did some 
work, perfornied the tasks assigned him in 
the schoolroom and thoroughly enjoyed the 
pleasures of the playground. 

On the 5fh of March, 1865, Mr. Rorick 
was united in marriage to Miss Minerva 
Jane Morvan, who was torn in Intlianapolis, 
Indiana. In the meantime Mr. Rorick had 
responded to his country's call for aid and 
donned the blue uniform as a defender of the 
national government at \Vashington, enlist- 
ing on the 6th of August, 1862, as a memtor 
of the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh 
New York Vohniteer Infantry. Proceed- 
ing to the .south he participated in the bat- 
tles of Galesburg and Lookout Mountain, 
besides other engagements. \\'hen the war 
was ended in 1865 Mr. Rorick returned to 
his home, taking up his abode in Cayuta, 
where he has lived continuously since. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Rorick has 
been blessed with nine children, but they lost 
their first two, Charlie and Daua. Ellie is 
now the wife of Ed. Glue, a resident fanner 
of Cayuta. John was united in marriage to 
Miss Mary Chaffee, and they, too. are living 
in Cayuta with their one child. Reuben 
wedded Miss Bessie P>rown and resides at 
Brce-sport, Chemung county. He is in the 
employ of the railroad. Ervine is married 
lo lola Hoyt and has one child. Levi is 
vet under the parental roof, and Elossie is 
attending school. The family home is a 
comfortable residence in Cayut.i. Mr. Ror- 
ick has luade gi-vod improvements upon his 



538 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



farm and liis buildings are kept in good re- 
pair, while his land is divided into fields of 
convenient size by good fences. The early 
])lanting of spring results in golden harvests 
in the autumn and the farm work is carried 
on in a manner that indicates the owner to 
be wide-awake, determined and energetic. 

He votes with the Republican party, and 
with his family attends the Baptist church, 
of which he is an earnest and devoted mem- 
ber. It is a noticeable fact that the old sol- 
dier is almost always a good citizen. The 
sacrifice which he made for his country in 
the dark hours of the Civil war awaken in 
him an intense devotion to his country, and 
Mr. Rorick is no exception to the rule. 
Local advancement and national progress 
are causes both dear to his heart and his 
efforts in behalf of his home community 
have been effective and beneficial. 



FRED B. SIRRIXE. 

Fred B. Sirrine has always resided in 
Schuyler county and has long been identified 
with its agricultural and stock-raising inter- 
ests. He was bom March i, 1870, in the 
town of Hector, a son of Horace S. and De- 
borah A. (Barl)er) Sirrine, the former a 
farmer by occupation. Both the Sirrine and 
Barber families were early settlers of the 
town of Hect'jr, removing to Schuyler coun- 
ty from Putnam county, New York. They 
were of Englisli and Scotch descent. 

The public school system of his native 
county has provided Fred B. Sirrine with the 
educational privileges which he enjoyed in 
his youth and he was trained to agricultural 
pursuits upon his father's farm, where dur- 
ing the periods of vacation he assisted in the 



lalx)rs of field and meadow. The occupation 
to which he ^vas reared he has always made 
his life work and he now has a good farm, 
where he is engaged to some extent in the 
raising of grain, but his preference is for 
stock-raising, and he keeps on hand good 
grades of cattle, horses and hogs, for which 
he finds a ready and profitable sale on the 
market. Thus is his income annually in- 
creased, and he is now numbered among the 
successful agriculturists of his community. 
In Perry City, New York, on the 3 1 st of 
January, 1894, Mr. Sirrine was united in 
marriage to Miss Eliza C. Strowbridge, a 
daughter of John and Clara Strowbridge. 
She was born March 13, 1871, and by her 
marriage has become the mother of one 
daughter and one son : Clara S., bom Sep- 
lemljer 23, 1895; and Horace S., born Janu- 
ary 7, 1898. Mr. Sirrine has always affili- 
ated with the Republican party and has firm 
faith in its principles. In 1900 he became a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. He has no pronounced religious 
views, rather endorsing the Presbyterian doc- 
trines, but wherever he goes he is known as 
a man of intrinsic worth of character and his 
friends are many. 



JOSEPH L. XORDIKE, D. D. S. 

Dentistry may be said to be almost unique 
among other occupations, as it is at once a 
])rofession, a trade and a business. Such 
being the case, it follows that in order to at- 
tain the highest success in it one must be 
thoroughly conversant with the theory of art. 
must l)e expert with the many tools and ap- 
pliances incidental to the practice of modem 
dentistry, and nnist possess business qualifi- 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



539 



cations acle(]uate to dealing with the financial 
side oi the profession. In all of these par- 
ticulars Dr. Nordike is well 'qualified, and 
therefore has attained prestige among the 
able representatives of dentistry in Xew 
York. 

Dr. Joseph Lawrence Nordike was born 
in Wayne county, Indiana, Xovember 24, 
[864, his parents being Lawrence and Emma 
J. (Estep) Nordike. On botli the paternal 
and maternal sides he comes of good old 
Revolutionary stock. In both lines one of 
his great-grandfathers were soldiers of the 
war of 1 812 and the father of our subject 
was found as a loyal defender of the Union 
cause in the Civil war, enlisting in the 
Twenty-second Regiment of Indiana In- 
fantry, with which he served for a year. He 
was never wounded or taken prisoner. 

The Doctor pursued his literary educa- 
tion in the public schools of Peru, Miami 
county, Indiana, to wliicli place his parents 
had removed during Iiis early boyhood. Tie 
afterward entered the University of Michi- 
gan, at Ann Arbor, and was graduated in tlie 
dental department with the degree of Doctor 
oi Dental Surgery. On the 30th of June, 
1887, returning to Peru, he there began !iis 
practice, and for ten years was an able rep- 
resentative of the profession in that place. 
In March, 1S98. he came to the east, estab- 
lishing his home in W'atkins, where he has 
since remained, and the public has given 
proof of its faith in his ability by according 
to him a liberal patronage. 

The home lite of Dr. Nordike has been 
very pleasant. He was happily married on 
the 15th of October, 1889, to Miss Rachel J. 
Holman, a daughter of Isaac N. and Eliza- 
beth (Liston) Holman. L'nto them have 
been born two children. Bertha and Charles, 
aged res|)ectively eleven and eight \ears. 



The Doctor belongs to the Jefferson Lrxlge, 
No. 332, F. & A. M., of Watkins, and to 
Miami Lodge, No. 52, I. O. O. V., of Peru, 
Indiana. He is also connected with the 
Knights of the Maccabees of Watkins, and 
liis political faith makes him a representative 
of the Democracy. Religiously he is an 
I'-piscopalian. His nature is kindly, his tem- 
]>erament genial and his manner courteous 
and in Watkins Dr. Nordike is regarded as 
a companionable and popular gentleman. 



MICI-IAEL CRAMER. 

Michael Cramer, of Mechlenburg, is one 
of the w orlhy citizens that the fatherland has 
furnished to the Empire state, and to-day he 
is successfully engaged in the hotel business, 
having gained prosperity through his own 
well directed efforts. His birth occurred on 
•the nth of January, 1840, in Ellsworth, 
(jermany, his parents being Philip and Mary 
(Leonard) Cramer. The first fourteen years 
of his life were spent in his native land. He 
then came to -\merica, taking up his abode in 
Dryden, New York. IIa\ing no capital and 
being dependent upon his own resources for 
a living he secured work as a farm hand and 
was employed in that capacity until twenty- 
one years of age, when he put aside business 
and personal considerations, joining the 
army in defense of the Union. He enlisted 
at Cortland, New ^'ork, as a member of Com- 
l)any C, Seventy-sixth New York Infantry, 
and participated in the battles of Fredericks- 
burg and many skinuishes. The date of his 
enlistment was November, 1861, and on the 
2d of October, 1862, he was honorably dis- 
charged, for in the meantime he had become 
(juite ill, owing to the hardships and rigors 



540 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



of army life. His health was so seriously 
impaired that he had to go to Florida, his 
lungs having' become affected so that it was 
believed the milder climate of the south 
would prove Ijeneficial. After being in Fin- 
lay Hospital in Washington, D. C, for some 
time, he was there dischargetl. 

Mr. Cramer at once returned to Cortland 
county, New York, and has since lived in the 
lake country of the central portion of the 
Empire state. In 1889 he took up his abode 
in Alechlenburg, where he established the 
hotel which he is now conducting, being the 
only representative of this line of business in 
the village. In his pleasant hostelry he has 
twelve sleeping rooms, a parlor, dining room, 
kitchai, office and bar-room. There is also 
a large and commodious barn conducted in 
connection with the hotel. Mr. Cramer puts 
forth every effort possible to promote the 
welfare and comfort of his guests, and has 
thus won favor with the traveling public. 
He was a member of Candor Post, G. A. R., 
for many years, but since coming to ^lech- 
lenburg has never transferred his member- 
ship to the post here. He possesses many of 
the sterling characteristics of the German 
people, including persevering qualities, firm- 
ness of purpose and reliability, and along 
these lines Mr. Cramer has gained his suc- 
cess. 



CYRANCS ULM.XX. 

Cyranus Ulman is a self-made man, who 
from the early age of twelve years has been 
dependent entirely upon his own efforts, 
l)rooking no obstacles that could be overcome 
by determination and honorable purpose. 
He has steadily worked his way upward and 
is now nuiubered among the substiuitial farm- 



ers of Catharine township, Schuyler county. 
He was born in the town of Rosebloom, Ot- 
sego county. New York, a son of Mr. and 
Mrs. John F. Ulman, in whose family were 
two sons. George W. joined the army as a 
niemljer of the same company and regiment 
to which our subject belonged, went to the 
front and died at Baton Rouge in 1863, thus 
laying down his life upon the altar of his 
country. 

Prior to the age of twelve years Cxranus 
Ulman pursued his studies in the public 
schools, but at that time he began earning his 
own livelihood and has since been dependent 
upon his labors. He began working as a 
farm hand and he also followed caqientering 
in au^ly manhood. He was thus einployed 
until July 20, 1862, when, aroused by a pa- 
triotic spirit, he offered his services to the 
government, enlisting in the Union army as 
a member of the One Hundred and Sixty- 
first Regiment of New York Volunteers, 
formed in Schuyler county. He went to the 
front under command of P. H. Durling, of 
Hector, New York, 'f he regiment spent the 
winter at Baton Rouge, I.ouisiana, and in the 
spring of 1863 the company to which our 
subject belonged was discharged and its 
members were sent home. After remaining 
here for a time Mr. Ulman re-enlisted, this 
lime becoming a member of Company D, 
One Hunilred and Seventy-ninth New York 
Infantry, under Captain I'ierson, of Tru- 
mansburg, New Yt)rk, and General Gregg, 
of F.lmira. Proceeding to the front with 
that command be jjarticipated in several en- 
gagements, where he manifested his loyalty 
to the government and to the old flag. 

After his return home Mr. Ulman was 
united in marriage to Miss Louisa Strange, 
of Newfield, Tompkins county. New York. 
the wedding being celebrated in the year 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



54» 



1866. They hcf^an tlieir ckmiestic life in 
Odessa, where they are now Hving. They 
have one daughter, Xelhe, who is the wife of 
Zella King". Mrs. Ulman's parents reside in 
Odessa. They have four children : .\ll)ert. 
Ida. Sarah and Mary. Our subject and his 
wife ha\e traveleil life's jouniey together 
over a third of a century and throughout this 
entire period they iiave hved in Catharine 
township, where they liave many warm 
friends. In liis business affairs he is ener- 
getic and determined and tlius has gained 
creditable success. In matters of citizenship 
he is trustworthy and loyal and in social re- 
lations he is pleasant, thus gaining many 
warm friends. 



FRANK A. HARVEY. 

Frank A. Harvey was bom on the 9th of 
.•\ugust, 1846, in the town of Catharine, 
Schuyler county, and in this connection it is 
interesting to note .something of the family 
from which he came. His father, Asher 
n;ir\ey, was born in Enfield. Tompkins 
county, on the 2d of December, 1826. and 
having arrived at years of maturity he wed- 
ded Rachel Cooper, whose birth occurred in 
Dutchess county. New York, on the 24th of 
March, 1836. Their marriage was l)lessed 
with seven children: Lydia is the wife of 
Emmet Brondridge, a resident of Candor. 
New York ; George, who was a soldier of the 
Civil war and lost a limb in the ser\ice, wed- 
ded Amelia Loomis and resides in N'anetten, 
New York, where he is conducting a harness 
store; Frank .•\., whose name introduces this 
re\iew, is the next of the family; Alvaretta 
is the wife of Samuel Hansler, a resident of 
the town of Newiield, Tompkins county ; 
De Wit wedded Ida Dickens, by whom he 



has seven ciiildren, and makes his iionie in 
.Mechlenburg, New York; Edgar married 
b^dith Dickens and lives in the town of Hec- 
tor; and Ida. the youngest of the family, is 
now deceased. 

At the usual age Frank A. Harvey en- 
tered the public schools, and when his educa- 
tion was acf|uired he became a defender of 
the Union cause, enlisting in the service of 
his country when 1)ut eighteen years of age. 
It was on the 5th of September, 1864. that 
he donned the blue uniform and joined Com- 
pany E. One Hundred and Seventy-ninth 
Regiment of New "S'ork X'olunteers, with 
which he served until the close of the war. 
-Vlthough but a boy he was ever loyal and 
faithful to his duty, displaying a valor equal 
to that of many veterans of twice his years. 
When the war was ended and the country no 
longer needed his .services he again became 
a resident of the Empire state, locating in the 
town of Enfield, Tompkins county. 

There he was united in marriage to Miss 
Mary A. Bonnett. a daughter of William 
Honnett. whose birth occurred in Westches- 
ter county, New York. Her mother bore the 
maiden name of Philanda Burlew and was a 
native of luifield, Tompkins county. Their 
children were: Charles, who married Belle 
Sonbern, by whom he has one child: J<ihn. 
who is living w itli his parents in iMitield : and 
Mary A., the esteemed wife of our subject. 

At the time of their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Harvey beg.an their domestic life in the 
town of F.nlield. njion a farm which he con- 
tinued to cultivate for m.iny years. I le made 
his farm valuable because of the excellent 
imi)rovements which he placed upon it and 
because oi the care and labor which he l)e- 
stowed upon the fields. .\s the years pas.sed 
his rich harvests returned to him an income 
that enabled him to saveannnallv and he thus 



542 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



acquired a comfortable competence which 
now enables him to live retired. In 1887 he 
put aside the work of the fami and remo\ed 
to the village of Cayutaville, purchasing the 
place which is now the home of himself and 
his estimable wife. He is identified with the 
Repul)lican party and keeps well informed 
on the issues and questions of the day which 
di\ide the country into political factions. 
He never falters in support of what he l)e- 
lieves to l)e right, and this characteristic of 
his life is in keeping with his professions as 
a member of the Methodist church. 



WILLIAjM W. DENISOX. 

There is much that is commendable in 
the life record of Mr. Denison, who is a vet- 
eran (if the Civil war. a citizen faithful and 
loyal, a business man of honor and a friend 
of sterling wortli. He was born on the 8tli 
of March, 1848, in the town of Veteran. 
Chemung county. His father, J. J. Denison, 
was born in Canton, Pennsylvania, and was 
united in marriage to Miss Comelia Smith. 
This worthy c(Hiple became the parents of 
six children, as follows : -\I. S. Huldah, 
Christopher, Maria, \\'il!iam \\'. and Rufus. 

Like the otiier meml)ers of his father's 
household William W. Denison spent the 
days of his boyhood and youth under the 
parental rof)f and was enabled to enjoy the 
eilucational jirivileges affi)rded by the com- 
mon schools near by. Therein he pursued 
his studies until he reached the age of four- 
teen years. He afterward worked in the 
mines and was thus employed until he joined 
the army on the 8th of .August. 1864. He 
became one of the boys in blue of Company 
A, Fiftieth Regiment of New York \'olun- 



teers. He was then only eighteen years of 
age, but he manifested a braver>- and fidelity 
equal to that of many a time-tried veteran. 
He continued with his regiment until the 
w ar closed and rendered to his country valu- 
able service because he was a brave and loyal 
adherent of the L^nion cause. 

When the war ended Mr. Denison re- 
turned to his home in Canton, Pennsylvania, 
and was again connected with mining inter- 
ests for many years. He resided in the Key- 
stone state until 1900, when he removed to 
Watkins, where he has since made his home, 
and he is now occupying a position as en- 
gineer. 

On the 1 2th of November, 1868, Mr. 
Denison was united in marriage to Miss 
Annie Camp, a daughter of Elias and Jane 
(Roberts) Camp, whose family numbered 
but two children, botli daughters, Annie and 
Katie. Pjv her ninrriage Mrs. Denison has 
Ijecome the mother of three children, Cor- 
nelia, Jay and Ray. Cornelia is now the wife 
of Byron Rittenhouse and resides at Mon- 
tour Falls, her husband being foreman of the 
l)ridge works there. Jay, who is employed 
a.' an engineer at Salt Point. New York, is 
married and has three children. Katie Marie, 
Wesley and Leon. Ray resides under the 
l^arental roof and is employed as a fireman in 
tlie salt works. 

During his residence in Watkins, al- 
though it has covered but comparatively a 
liricf period. ]\Ir. Denison has made friends 
because he is a man who deserves the honor 
and respect of his fellow townsmen. In his 
political views he is a Republican, and keeps 
well informed on the issues of the day, but 
has never l)een an office seeker. In religious 
faith he is a Disciple, and his life has been in 
harmony with his profession as a meml>er of 
the church. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



543 



GEORGE C. BARNES. 

George C. Barnes is one of the young 
and aiterprising fanners of Schuyler county 
who has already attained success to a degree 
tliat many an older man might well envy. 
He was born on the 7tli of May. 1876. His 
father, Lewis Barnes, also a native of Schuy- 
ler county, was bom June 16, 1849, and af- 
ter attaining his majority he wedded Emma 
Morris, by whom he had two children, a 
daughter and a son, Emma and George C. 
The mother died of heart disease in 1887 and 
the father afterward married Rose B. Mc- 
ICane. For some time the father was en- 
gaged in conducting a meat market and is 
now acting as night watchman for large con- 
tractors. 

In the town of ^lontour George C. 
Barnes pursued his education as a student 
in the public schools, there remaining until 
fourteen years of age. He has since followed 
farming, being for some time in the employ 
of his father and others, after which he be- 
gan farming on his own account. He was 
married on the 24th of December, 1897, to 
Miss Maude Warden, the wedding taking 
place in the town of Burdett. The lady is 
a daughter of Eugene W'arden, who was 
born in Lewisville, Pennsylvania, in 1852. 
His wife bore the maiden name of Ruth 
Winthrop and they have I^ecome the parents 
of seven children : Harry A., Louisa, David, 
Frederick, iZunice, Pardee and Louis. 

At the time of their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Barnes located in Spencer, New York, 
where they remained for a year. They then 
removed to W'atkins, where they spent a 
similar period, going next to Bennettsburg, 
which was their place of abode for two years. 
.Since that time they have resided in Mon- 
tour Falls, where they have a pleasant home, 



celebrated for its chamiing hospitality which 
is enjoyed by their many friends. Mr. 
Barnes devotes his time and energy to farm- 
ing, with good success, and although he is 
yet a young man he is accounted one of the 
substantial and leading citizens of the com- 
munity. 

1. ^ 

CFIARLES S. BECKWITH. 

Among the men whose lives have con- 
tributed to the improvement and progress of 
Schuyler county was numbered Charles S. 
Beckwith, who in early pioneer times became 
a resident of this portion of the state and 
here lived until his death, his life span cover- 
ing almost four score years. His name is 
inseparably interwoven with the early his- 
tory of the county in many ways and many 
of his acts have become a matter of record in 
connection with the upbuilding of this lo- 
cality. 

Mr. Beckwith was born at Coldrain, 
Connecticut, in 1810, a son of Joseph and 
Lucinda Beckwith, in whose family of twelve 
children he was the eldest son. Three of 
the family are still living: Jasper, who 
makes his home in Burwell, Nebraska ; Will- 
iam, a resident of Shiawassa county, Michi- 
gan ; and Jason, who is living in Scranton, 
Pennsylvania. In 1816 the parents left the 
state of Connecticut and came to what was 
then Steuben county, New York, now Schuy- 
ler county. They were among the earliest 
settlers of Salubria, the name of which town 
was afterward changed to Jcffer.son and is 
now Watkins. The greater part of the vil- 
lage was then built upon the hillside and 
Joseph Beckwith conducted a cooperage es- 
tablishment and a shoe shop in the building 
that is now the familv homestead. He was 



544 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



one of the first representatives of industrial 
interests here. 

Charles S. Beckwith w as only aljoiit six 
years of age when he accompanied his par- 
ents on their removal to Schuyler countjs 
where his subsec[uent life was passed. He 
was only ten years of age when, in 1820, he 
entered the employ of John Watkins, and 
from that time forward he was dependent 
upon his own resources for a living. In 1820 
he carried the first mail bag over the route 
from Watkins to Newtown, now Elmira, 
New York, making the journey on horse- 
back. He delivered the bag in safety to the 
postmaster, who complimented him upon his 
bravery and care, and seeing that the boy 
was barefooted he gave him a silver dollar, 
advising him to buy a pair of shoes. Mr. 
Beckwith acted upon this advice and care- 
fully cherished the shoes which he thus 
earned. He was a man of marked energy' 
and industry and in his early years he became 
extensivel}' engaged in lumbering in the em- 
ploy of Mr. Watkins. He was also connected 
])rominently with the improvement of the 
county and the introduction of many im- 
portant interests here. In 1846 he built the 
large reservoir in the now famous Watkins 
glen and in 1848 he built several railroad 
bridges along the line of the present Nortiiern 
Central Railroad. 

On the 14th of February, 1836, Mr. 
Beckwith was united in marriage to Miss 
Sarah Ann l'\)ster, of Hector, and unto this 
union were torn nine children, eight of 
whom are yet living. Clarissa is the wife of 
William Collins, a residait of Watkins, and 
they have one son, William. Mary became 
the wife of I'Vank Seaman, who is a fireman 
on the Northern Central Railroad, living in 
Elmira, and their children are Judson, hVank 
and William D. Laura is the wife of W'ill- 



iam S. Longwell, a resident of Coming. 
William J. married Catharine Wegger and 
is now living a retired life. John S. is de- 
ceased. Ellen Ijecame the wife of Lee Clan- 
harty, and they now occupy a pleasant home 
in Watkins, Mr. Clauharty living a retired 
life. Their only child, a son, died at the age 
of twenty years. Charles A. Beckwith is a 
gardener residing in Watkins. Emily, de- 
ceased, was the wife of W. D. Seaman. 

J\Tr. Beckwith, the father, was at one time 
a very devoted memljer and liberal supporter 
of the Baptist church of Hector and later 
was an efficient helper in tlie church at Wat- 
kins. Sorrow and despondency, occasioned 
by financial reverses, cast a shadow over the 
later years of his life. He died in Watkins, 
]\Iarch 7, 1889, being past his eightieth year, 
and was laid to rest in Glenwood cemetery, 
after a residence of seventy-three years in 
Schuyler county. 



GEORGE W. ROSENKRANS. 

George W. Rosenkrans, a prominent 
political leader of Schuyler county and a 
well known representative of mercantile in- 
terests, is now living in the town of Weston 
and is numbered among the native sons of 
the Empire state, his birth having occurred 
in the town of Bradford. Steuben county, on 
the nth of April, 1859. His father, Harmon 
Rosenkrans, was born either in Seneca or 
in Steuben county, his parents having come 
from New Jersey and settled in Seneca coun- 
ty' at an early day, subse(|uentl)' removing 
thence to Steuben county. In early life Har- 
mon Rosenkrans learned the shoemakers 
trade in Bradford, and throughout his busi- 
ness career carried on work along that line. 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



S4S 



He wedded Susan Higlit, wliose grandfather 
was a Revolutionary soldier and was with 
Washington at Valley Forge, there enduring 
all the hardships of that terrihle winter. He 
served throughout the war. thus loyally aid- 
ing in securing the independence of the na- 
tion, but after the cessation of hostilities he 
became a surveyor. William Hight, the fa- 
ther of Mrs. Rosenkrans, was a soldier of the 
Mexican war under the command of General 
Scott, and with the family came from Penn- 
sylvania to New York, it being in this state 
that the parents of our subject were married. 
The father, who was Ijorn October 3, 1822, 
is still living, but the mother passed away in 
1888, at the age of fifty-six years. 

George W. Rosenkrans was reared to 
manhocnl in Bradford and attended school 
there, after which he spent two years as a 
student in Starkey Seminary. When about 
twenty-two years of age he began teaching, 
and later he continued his own education in 
the Dundee Preparator}- School. He was 
graduated in the Haverling Union School 
June 25. 1885, and it was through his own 
efforts that he was enabled to continue his 
education, earning the money which met the 
expenses of his more advanced courses. For 
two years he engaged in teaching in the Brad- 
ford Union Sch<x)Is, for two years in Wes- 
ton, for one year in Tyrone, and then again 
he returned to \\'^eston, where he spent an- 
other year. He was a very successful edu- 
cator, having the faculty to impart readily 
and impressively to others the knowledge 
that he had acquired, but his health failed 
him and he was obliged to abandon the field 
of educational lalx)r, turning his attention in 
other directions. He established a mercan- 
tile enterprise in Weston, where he is now 
carr)-ing on business with good success, his 



energy, honesty and industry bringing to 
him a gratifying financial return. 

On the 13th of September, 1S88, in Wes- 
ton, Mr. Rosenkrans was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Julia, a daughter of Edmund 
and Mary (Swarthout) Darrin. She was 
born in the town of Tyrone. Schuyler county, 
and by her marriage has become the mother 
of three children, born in Weston : Bertha, 
Harmon D. and Edmund C. 

In November, 1880, Mr. Rosenkrans 
cast his first ballot, supporting James A. 
Garfield f<ir the presidenc\-. Suice that time 
he has never failed to vote at an election or 
attend a town meeting except on one occa- 
.sion when he was ill in bed. For eight years 
he has served as justice of the peace, and was 
re-elected to that office in February. 1903. 
His decisions have been so strictly fair aiul 
impartial that no opinion which he has rai- 
dered oftlcially has ever been reversed. By 
President McKinley he was appointed post- 
master of Weston December 7, 1897. and 
filled the office for five years. Frequently he 
has been a delegate to various conventions, 
and in 1900 he attended the national Repub; 
lican convention in Philadelphia. Socially 
he is a charter member of Waneta Tent, No. 
580, Knights of the Maccal)ees. Mr. Rosen- 
krans is a man of scholarly attainments and 
broad genera! information, whose extensive 
reading has made him a companionable and 
entertaining gentleman. As a citizen he is 
deeply interested in public progress and im- 
provement, and the ([uestions wliich affect the 
general welfare of the comnuuiity. the state 
and the nation are familiar to him from many 
standpoints. His official service has ever 
been commendable and over the record of his 
private life and his public career there falls 
no shadow of wrcwig or suspicion of evil. 



546 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



ALONZO FORD. 

Farming is the chief occupation of the 
residents of Schuyler county. The rich land 
comprised within the horders of the county 
afiford good opportunities to the agriculturist 
and to the horticulturist, and many men of 
good business ability and marked enterprise 
are carrying on work here, which makes this 
district of the state noted for its agricultural 
products. Mr. Ford is a representative 
farmer of the town of Cayuta, but is a native 
of Tompkins county, New York, his birth 
having there occurred in Ulysses, on the 19th 
of January', 1835. His father. Nelson Ford, 
was born in Connecticut, and in early boy- 
hood became a resident of Schuyler county. 
New York, where he was reared and mar- 
ried, the lady of his choice being Miss Caro- 
line Dillingham. Their union was blessed 
with two sons, but Edgar, the elder, is now 
deceased. 

Alonzo Ford, the younger son, acquired 
a common-school education, and to farm 
work he was reared, early becoming familiar 
with all the duties and labors that fall to the 
lot of the agriculturist in connection with the 
cultivation of field and meadow. When he 
began business on his own account he saw 
no reason to change his mode of life and has 
always been a farmer. George W'ashington 
said that farming is the most useful as well 



as the most honorable occupation to which 
man can devote his energies. Mr. Ford's 
choice of a life work was, therefore, well 
made, and in the control of his land he shows 
that he is thoroughly conversant with the 
best methods of raising and rotating crops 
and of caring for the various kinds of fruit 
which he raises. 

Mr. Ford married Miss Iberia Gaskell, 
who was born April 8, 1841, and is a daugh- 
ter of Sanniel and Annie Gaskell, the former 
a native of Massachusetts. Her parents had 
four children : Adeline and William, both 
of whom have passed away; John, who is en- 
gaged in lumbering and farming in the state 
of Michigan; and Iberia, the esteemed wife 
of our subject. By the marriage of Mr. and 
Mrs. Ford they have had one son, William. 
Suffering from sunstroke his mind became 
deranged and he is now in an asylum. He 
married Carrie Gaskell and they had three 
children. 

The religious faith to which Mr. and 
Mrs. Ford adhere is that of the Methodist 
church, with which they have held member- 
ship for many years. In his political views 
he is a Republican, but has never sought the 
honors or emoluments of ofiice, preferring 
to devote his time and attention to his busi- 
ness affairs, in which he is meeting with 
creditable success. 



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